Now, Mumbaikars can book parking slots online before venturing out

The civic body is seeking to implement a parking management solution, proposed by the Mumbai Parking Authority, through an integrated IT system that will digitise and consolidate the city’s entire inventory of existing and proposed on-street and off-street parking.

Mumbai: Thanks to an initiative by the BMC, it will soon be possible for vehicle-owners to get information about all the parking lots in Mumbai and book a slot by paying online. The civic body is seeking to implement a parking management solution, proposed by the Mumbai Parking Authority, through an integrated IT system that will digitise and consolidate the city’s entire inventory of existing and proposed on-street and off-street parking.

Now, Mumbaikars can book parking slots online before venturing out

“All the available parking lots of the BMC and government organisations like MMRDA, Port Trust, roadside parking and even private housing societies parking will be brought under a single software interface,” said P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner (projects). “This will be a game-changer, as the public will be able to get lots of information about all parking lots available all over Mumbai 24x7 on their mobiles and other gadgets. It will be like overseas, where you book your parking slot before you reach. All payments can also be made online.”

Entry and exit boom barriers will be installed for off-street parking spaces and there will be a pre-booking facility for a window of two hours available only for off-street parking. While there is no pre-booking facility available for on-street parking, a list of locations with their slot availability will be visible to users as soon as they reach within a periphery of 200 meters. The BMC has already invited a ₹3.84-crore tender for selection of a system integrator.

Payments are tied to a vehicle‘s license plate number (entered through POS or Mobile App), which, in turn, is used in the enforcement process to check whether the vehicle has paid the fee or not. A regular user will have the option of signing up for a User Account connected to a registered mobile number(s) that can be used for parking fee payment anywhere in the city. Payment will also be integrated with Fasttag mode.

The BMC says that the system is also environmentally friendly: Digital payments minimise the usage of paper, and since vehicles can pass without having to wait queues, less fuel is burned and carbon emissions are reduced.

Four phases have been envisaged in the software implementation. The first phase will include only off-street parking Equivalent Car Space (ECS), which will cover 32 public parking lots and 29 amenity parking lots in 17 wards. The second phase will include on-street ECS of 65 existing locations and 530 proposed locations of four wards which includes Pay and Park General (263 locations) and Pay and Park Residential (267 locations)

The third phase will include all the pending on-street proposed parking locations, basically comprising Pay and Park General (1,978 locations) and Pay and Park Residential (1,573 locations). The Mumbai traffic police department has not yet issued an NOC, so the proposed locations of Phase 3 have not yet been finalised. Phase 4 is mainly for upcoming ECS in future, if any.