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Get ready to pay more for parking in Chandigarh
42% hike in parking rates on table as part of Smart Parking Management System; agenda to come up in Chandigarh MC House meeting on July 25
Over five months after the municipal corporation (MC) took over the operations of city’s parking lots after expiry of three-year agreements with private contractors, the civic body has finally set the ball rolling to turn them into smart parking lots.
Although replete with technology driven facilities to provide a swift and smooth parking experience, the new parking management system will come at a cost — a 42% hike in parking rates.
The agenda for the Smart Parking project, including proposed hike in parking rates, is set to be tabled before the MC House during its next monthly meeting on July 25.
As per the proposal, the charges for four-wheelers will be ₹20 for the first six hours, while an additional ₹40 will be levied for parking for up to five hours more. For two-wheelers, the rate will be ₹10 and ₹20, respectively.
Currently, MC charges ₹7 for two-wheelers and ₹14 for four-wheelers.
Notably, the plan to introduce a FASTag-enabled parking management system at the 89 parking lots in the city was conceived in August last year. But the project proposal has never been tabled in the MC General House. Introduction of FASTag would eliminate the need for physical payment of parking fee and manning of the entry points.
Among other features, also proposed are Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras to prevent vehicle theft and revenue loss. A mobile app is also on the cards to provide information about available parking space, along with facility to pre-book a parking spot.
Parking lots in the city are divided into two zones. Zone 1 comprises parking lots in the southern and eastern sectors, including Sectors 20, 26 and 34. Zone 2 includes northern areas, such as Sectors 7, 8, 9, 17, 22 and Sukhna Lake. Since February, all parking lots are being run by MC.
City mayor Anup Gupta said, “We will be introducing Smart Parking in Chandigarh. As far as the parking rates are concerned, the proposed hike will be tabled in the MC House meeting for a final call.”
“A tender will be floated to hire a private agency to manage the parking system, which will also be integrated with the Integrated Command and Control Centre of Chandigarh for data analytics and service monitoring,” said municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra.
RITES pointed out need for major improvements
In April 2022, after its survey of city’s parking system, RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) had listed several problems with it.
It had pointed out that there was no real-time tracking or data/report for analysis of the parking lots. Commuters waste considerable time in searching for a vacant parking spot, which causes traffic congestion, further leading to stress on users and pollution.
Highlighting sub-optimal utilisation of space, RITES had also pointed out lack of flexibility in parking charges. Among its various suggestions was introduction of an easy payment mechanism.
