I’m not sure if this is true but heard that The Curve in Mutiara Damansara has increased its parking rate. A friend of mine told me that last weekend she had to pay RM2 for parking at The Curve. Not sure about weekday anyway. But yesterday afternoon when I headed to Tesco Mutiara Damansara, I went round the parking area 5 times and could not even get a parking bay. Come on, it’s a weekday afternoon, a working day, and can’t even get parking? It is understandable if it is a Sunday, but hello!!! Its’ a Monday!!!

So what has the increased parking rate at The Curve (assuming it’s true) got to do with the parking problem in Tesco? For those who are not familiar with the commercial center of Mutiara Damansara, the four shopping malls there are linked together via either via an open compound, underpass tunnel or skybridge. Ikano/Ikea is linked to The Curve via an underpass tunnel and a skybridge while The Curve is linked to Cineleisure via an open compound. The same goes to The Curve and Tesco via an open compound.

Ikano charges RM1 for first 3 hours parking, thereafter 50 sen for every hour. Cineleisure charges a flat RM1 per entry. The Curve also charges RM1 per entry but not sure about the changed in parking charges there as I could not find any information about it when I googled the web. Meanwhile, parking in Tesco is free.

See the problem? Assuming The Curve now charges hourly parking instead of flat rate, many shoppers at The Curve are using the free parking in Tesco to park their vehicles, thereby denying parking space for genuine Tesco customers. As I was driving around to search for a parking lot, I saw people with plastic bags from Ikea as well as boutiques and shops in The Curve heading to the parking lot in Tesco, not even seeing them coming out with Tesco plastic bags. After feeling frustrated with that, I left and headed to Tesco’s nearest competitor, Giant at 1 Utama instead.

The management of Tesco really has to do something about this problem. The existing policy of warning people not to park more than 4 hours does not help. Anyone can still park there for 4 hours but do their shopping at The Curve. Hence, the only way to alleviate this problem altogether is to impose parking charges at Tesco’s car park, but with the provision for free parking to genuine Tesco customers.

A suggestion to the parking charges that Tesco can impose at the Mutiara Damansara outlet, Monday to Sunday, is as follows:

RM3.00 for first 3 hours
RM1.00 per hour for every additional hour

Shoppers who made purchases at Tesco shall be given free parking for the first 3 hours. The parking ticket shall be validated at the hypermarket’s check out counters just like what is currently being practiced in Ikea, without having to trouble customers validating it at auto-pay machines.

On another matter, perhaps one would notice that during weekends especially, the roads leading to Cineleisure, Ikano/Ikea, The Curve and Tesco are full of cars parked illegally at the road shoulder, reducing the 4-lane road into 2 lanes, 1 on each direction, causing much congestion to the area. Perhaps the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) should really issue compound notices to these people who park haphazardly in Mutiara Damansara.