Jona Cenameri and Klerisa Azuni
Tirana Parking , an institution under the Municipality of Tirana that has been managing paid public parking lots since 2017, has promised that the fees collected from SMS payments will be used for greening the city. However, a research conducted by INA Media found that only 9.3% of the amount collected since 2017 has been used for this purpose.
“This payment goes to greening the city. Thank you!” – is the message that citizens receive from Tirana Parking , after paying for parking via SMS. The payment is made, the message is sent and the promise is forgotten, leaving its truth on the borders of an urban legend.
“I use Tirana Parking ’s SMS parking every week because of work,” says Fjona, a student from Tirana, who in addition to her studies also works. “From what I have seen, the greenery has not increased at all. The park behind the Opera House has even been turned into a palace,” she adds with skepticism towards Tirana Parking ’s hopeful message.
The local government expert, Agron Haxhimali, emphasizes the legal weight of this message.
"These messages, approved by the municipality, have the weight and authority of the municipality as a constitutional institution. The content of electronic messages must meet legal requirements and be considered legally binding", he explains.
Tirana Parking , established in 2015 to manage public parking in the capital, offers 3.313 parking spaces with SMS on the side of the road. The fees for these parking spaces range from 100 lek per hour in Zone A, to 40 lek per hour in Zone B and 20 lek per hour in Zone C. These parking spaces operate from 7:30 am to 20:00 pm , from Monday to Sunday in high-activity areas, and from Monday to Friday in less active areas.
According to official data made available to ACQJ , 2024 marks the eighth year that these parking lots have generated revenue. Since 2017, a total of 636 million lek (about 6.3 million euros) has been collected from these parking fees.
How much money is collected from paid parking?
Since the introduction of SMS payments for parking in Tirana, the municipality has collected a significant amount of revenue. However, the promise that these funds would be used for greening the city has not been fulfilled to the extent promised.
The promises of greenness, which have not been kept
Seven years ago, the mayor, Erion Veliaj, declared that revenues from Tirana Parking would be used to create the city's orbital forest.
"Each citizen, who pays for parking, is basically buying a tree, which we will plant for him and his children in Tirana", Veliaj said at the time.
Regarding the development of the orbital forest and the revenues collected from public parking lots via SMS , the Municipality of Tirana responded to questions from the ACQJ editorial team , clarifying that, according to Municipal Council Decisions no. 48 and no. 49, dated 11.11.2015, as well as Decision no. 158, dated 26.12.2019, “Revenues from parking fees are not intended for a specific purpose.”
This response contradicts the message being sent to citizens and Mayor Veliaj's previous statement: "Every penny that will come from Tirana's parking lots will go to the orbital forest ."
Data from Open Procurement shows that only about 60 million lekë, or 9.3% of the total amount collected, was used for the greening of the city (see tables below).
Local government professor Agron Haxhimali considers this contradiction between Tirana Parking 's message and the official response of the Municipality of Tirana as an unnecessary ambiguity.
"If the citizens are told that the money will be used for the greening of the city, then the municipality should be transparent and report the amount collected and the destination of this money, in accordance with what was promised to the citizens", he argues.
Suspicious tenders: Where are the green spaces?
Since 2017, Tirana Parking has undertaken eight tenders for greening, according to Open Procurement data . Two of these tenders have red flags due to lack of competition, while one tender has been cancelled.
The obligations of the economic operators, according to the tender documents, include the maintenance of a green surface of 837 m², 78 decorative trees and 265 bushes. These tenders have cost about 60 million ALL, but have contributed little to the growth of the greenery of the city of Tirana.
Fines, a growing burden for citizens
The SMS parking service has been a source of frustration for many citizens, who share different opinions on its functionality and its contribution to the greening of the city.
"They are fraud! I paid for two hours and they still fined me because I didn't pay, - says Arbëri, angry with the service. "You have nowhere to complain."
Parking in the capital is necessary for Arbër, who does not live in Tirana, but often travels for work. For him, this service remains a permanent problem, both in practical and financial terms.
Alesia, a resident of Tirana, shares the same dissatisfaction: "We use the service and they still fine us".
Suada, who lives and works in Tirana, tries to avoid parking when she receives messages that the system is not working: "I often receive messages that the system is not working and therefore I know that I will be fined".
The same situation happened to Fjona, the student from Tirana, who says: "I received automatic messages saying that the system is not working and therefore my payment has not been made. Due to the fault of the system, I received two fines of 2.000 allek.
According to data from the Municipal Police, the number of administrative fines for wrong parking has tripled from 2017 to 2023, while their value has doubled. Only in the first quarter of 2024, 91 administrative fines were imposed, worth 124 million ALL.
Parking via SMS is paid for through telephone operators, allowing them to also benefit from a percentage of the parking fees. The telephone operators responsible for this service have been Vodafone, ONE, AlbTelecom and Plus , while today there are only Vodafone and ONE.
Revenue from parking via SMS, by telephone companies (in lek)
Revenue from SMS parking minus the percentage received by telephone companies (in lek)
The percentages that these operators have benefited from using their SMS service for parking payments have ranged from 13% to 21%. Currently, telephone operators Vodafone and ONE each benefit from 18% of the money generated from SMS parking.
Percentages that telephone companies benefit from SMS parking
So, if one hour of parking is paid 100 lek, 18 lek out of 100 is paid to the telephone company for the service provided.
Were 1 million trees really planted?
On April 22, 2023, on International Earth Day, the Mayor, Erion Veliaj, declared that Tirana had planted its one millionth tree. However, urban planner Doriana Musaj sees this statement as a bubble inflated by propaganda.
"The number 1 million trees is a propaganda figure. If it were true, we would have several tens of green hectares and a developed park with verifiable projects", explains Musaj.
The ACQJ editorial team addressed the Municipality of Tirana with a request for information on the number, location and cost of trees planted since 2016 to date. According to the municipality’s response, Tirana currently has 563.294 trees (without specifying the period, when these trees were planted and how many of them were planted by donors), well below 1 million. Tirana also has 2.295.164 m² of greenery, which represents only 5.49% of the city’s total area of 41.8 km². According to a calculation based on this data, this means that 4.07 trees have been planted for every square meter, a claim that raises questions about its feasibility.
In response to our request for information, the Municipality of Tirana reported that, from 2016 to the first quarter of 2024, it purchased 118.574 decorative trees and shrubs, while another 18.065 were donated.
Is it possible to plant this number of trees?
Dr. Abdulla Diku, environmental engineering expert, explains: “A tree requires about 25 m² to plant. So 1 million trees would require an area of 25 million square meters or 2.500 hectares. It is impossible that this area was added to the greenery in Tirana, because this is equivalent to the area of Dajti and Priska mountains taken together".
In the calculations made by the municipality, it means that 101.75 trees have been planted for every 25 m², a claim that is contrary to the space required for each tree.
"A million trees, planted at a distance of 5 meters from each other, would stretch over 5.000 kilometers, enough to green both sides of the road from Tirana to Copenhagen", adds Dr. Somewhere.
The urban planner Musaj describes this situation as an attempt to mask the massive constructions in the city: "Greenery is being used to hide the concreting and reinforcement of the city's surfaces, throwing ash in our eyes."
According to the data provided by the Municipality of Tirana, from 2016 to 2024, 716 million ALL have been spent on planting trees; of these, about ALL 75 million were in the form of donations.
Has the planting of trees improved the air quality in Tirana?
Despite promises of greening, a study by Co-Plan for 2023 showed that the air quality in Tirana exceeds the parameters set by the European Union. For PM2.5 particles, for which the EU has set a norm of 25 µg/m³, Tirana has reached a maximum value of 800 µg/m³, making the air very polluted. According to air expert Elvis Ndreka, these particles are among the most dangerous for human health.
"They are invisible dust particles, but more dangerous than PM10, because they go straight to the human respiratory system, causing serious damage", says Ndreka.
Furthermore, a report published by the European Environment Agency in 2023 ranks Albania in first place for the highest death rate in the region, per 100.000 inhabitants, as a result of exposure to ozone (O₃) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂).
With millions in revenue collected from parking fees and promises for new, green spaces, citizens are left with questions about the destination of this money. Despite the guarantees from the municipality, the lack of transparency and minimal investments in greening show that the promises for the greening of Tirana have not been fulfilled.
The question remains: Where are the green spaces that were promised to Tirana and when will the city fulfill these promises?
