Delhi’s south corporation launches cashless parking lot in Dwarka

SDMC commissioner Gyanesh Bharti explained that the parking fee will be deducted automatically when the vehicle exits the parking lot. He said the goal is to “significantly reduce the time taken to park a vehicle”

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Thursday operationalised its first cashless parking lot in Dwarka Sector 14 which will see parking fees being automatically deducted through the RFID-based Fastags used for toll tax collections.

The cashless parking lot, which uses Fastag to deduct parking fee, is in Dwarka Sector 14. (Sourced)

SDMC commissioner Gyanesh Bharti explained that the parking fee will be deducted automatically when the vehicle exits the parking lot. “Our goal is to significantly reduce the time taken to park a vehicle,” he said.

A senior municipal official overseeing the parking management in South Delhi said that the Dwarka facility will be able to accommodate 140 cars, 50 two-wheeler and 20 buses. “The land near Dwarka sector 14 Metro station was handed over to us around a year back by DDA. This is a pilot project for cashless parking system and the same will be replicated in the closed sites run by SDMC where access can be easily controlled at one point. The integrated system will also act as an incentive for adopting RFID tags,” the official said.

The south corporation operates 145 surface parking sites and eight multi-level parking sites.

The official said that the cashless fee collection system can help in significant reduction of the average time taken to park a vehicle. “We are also developing an android based parking application which will be used by parking lot users to pay the fee digitally. All 153 parking sites will be covered by either an RFID-based collection system or the parking application-based collection. Paper slips will be provided to only those users who demand it,” the official stated.

While inaugurating the operation of the RFID parking lot, the south corporation mayor Mukesh Suryan said this is the first parking lot where the Fastag system will be implemented so that people do not face any difficulty while paying parking charges. “This will encourage online payment of parking fees. SDMC has authorised NHAI’s IHMCL Indian Highways Management Company Limited to collect parking charges from this facility and the agency will remit the revenue with the civic agency,” Suryan said. According to the agreement, the SDMC will reimburse the operation charges to the agency at the rate of 1 percent of the transaction value.

Leader of the SDMC House Inderjeet Sehrawat said that the cashless parking system will now be replicated in major parking lots and multilevel parking facilities. “The IHMCL will incur expenses related to setting up of structures for fee collection and the SDMC will not bear any cost related in this regard,” he added.