Chennai: Vehicle owners in the city soon have to pay to park their vehicles on roadsides as the Greater Chennai Corporation is all set to implement a parking management system (PMS), again.
As a part of Chennai smart city project, the civic body had conducted a survey to improve the ‘on street’ parking operations, optimum usage of the available parking space and to control traffic congestion. “In all, 471 bus route roads (BRR) in the city have been studied with the help of a consultant. These roads can park 12,047 cars,” a Chennai Corporation official said.
Interestingly, the Chennai corporation had implemented a parking management system earlier, but with little success.
According to the officials, there is a good potential in non-BRR roads, which can also be explored for parking. Parking in front of residential buildings also be regulated, the official added.
Meanwhile, the civic body had decided to charge '40 per hour (premium charge) for a car to park on roads where the demand for parking space is high. “Owners have to pay '20 to park their cars on normal roads. It has also decided to fix '10 on premium roads for two-wheelers and '5 on normal roads. Auto rickshaws, bus, HCV, LCV, minibus also have to pay parking charges. There would be no charges for bicycles,” the official explained.
It is learnt that the civic body had decided to implement the PMS with the help of private service providers on “design, build, finance, operate and transfer” basis.
According to an estimate by the Chennai Corporation officials, the civic body will generate revenue to the tune of '44.32 crore per year.
Following in the footsteps of digital India movement, Chennai Corporation has planned to implement PMS enabling cashless transactions.
“Roadside parking spaces will be integrated with multi-level parking (MLP) and other parking facilities. We are also planning to bring in a mobile phone application, website and other facilities to ensure friendly parking experience for the public. The corporation will call for tenders after the Board of Chennai Smart City gives administration sanction. The proposal has been already sent to the board,” the official said.
