Hyderabad: There will be no free parking facility on city streets from 2017. The roadside free parking lots provided by the traffic police will give way to the proposed intelligent paid parking system having online facility to pay and book parking space in advance.
The traffic police and GHMC have jointly identified on-street parking places which can accommodate over 41,000 bikes and 15,000 cars. Experts welcomed the decision but said that in addition to online payment facility, parking lots should also have automated ticket machines so that the person regulating parking of vehicles does not charge extra.
“Some time ago, there was a board at the parking lot in Himayatnagar which said '10 per hour for parking. But the person there demanded twice as much. This should not happen in the parking system of 2017. Higher security deposit should be collected from the contractor (agency) and it should be forfeited if excess parking fee is collected,” said traffic expert Dr S. Nagabhushana Rao, a former director-general of Engineering Staff College of India.
“An easily accessible grievance redressal system should be provided,” he said.
Experts said that pricing will be a major factor as there would always be a section willing to pay premium parking charges if proper parking space is provided. Traffic police and GHMC should plan the project keeping in mind the majority of motorists who will resist higher parking charges.
“Vehicle parking capacity should be studied at every lot and an assessment should be made about annual occupancy ratio. This will give a fair idea about projected income and based on this a maximum benchmark value has to be fixed ensuring that agencies do not quote higher bid amount than the benchmark value. Or else, the bid amount will increase due to competition and the contractor will collect it from the motorists,” said social activist C.J. Karira.
