By Abdul Kareem Al-Diyabi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

TAIF — Shortage of parking facilities at Taif University has forced many of its students to jump over the compound wall and violate traffic laws to reach classrooms on time.

Students who have been parking their cars far away from the campus urged the university management to construct a new parking facility for students as quickly as possible.

"We often pay fines to the traffic department for wrong parking," said one student.

University President Dr. Hussam Zaman promised on Oct. 5, 201, to create new parking space in front of Gate 1 within three weeks.

"Now more than three months have passed and the project still remains in paper," a student told Okaz/Saudi Gazette.

The students want to know the reason for the long delay in constructing the new car park as they hope that it would put an end to their parking problem.

"We are now forced to park our cars in the Health Ministry's parking lot and jump over the compound wall to reach classrooms on time," said the student, who requested anonymity.

He urged the university authorities to complete the parking project quickly. "We find it extremely difficult to get parking near the campus in the morning," he said.

Many students are forced to park their vehicles in a haphazard manner and the traffic police issue them tickets for wrong parking.

"The parking project is a simple one and will not cost much," the student said.

Another student who introduced himself as R. Al-Harthi said many students used to jump over the walls to reach their classrooms quickly. "They do this to save time and effort.”

He said the government has been spending huge amounts of money on university campuses every year. "It's not a big deal to build a new car park for the university's students," Al-Harthi said.

He blamed the lack of parking place for many violations by the students. "We hope the parking project would be completed quickly to alleviate the suffering of students and prevent them from violating the law," he said.

Al-Harthi said the university administration has failed to keep its promise. "It has also failed to keep its promise on the transportation issue," he added.

Saleh Al-Thubaity, spokesman for the university, did not respond to repeated inquiries from Okaz/Saudi Gazette regarding the parking issue and the students' complaints.