Chandigarh, June 17: Residents will soon be able to pay parking fee digitally through debit/credit cards or Paytm at entry points of parking lots.
People will also be able to check real-time parking space occupancy on an app, which will be developed by the civic body and its expense will be borne by four parking contractors.
These two attempts of the Municipal Corporation with the previous parking licensee, Arya Toll Infra firm, had failed.
As the corporation is deliberating to make a total of 98 paid parking lots in the city, it is looking forward to making them “smart parking lots.”
These things were decided during a parking committee meeting held at the MC office here. The recommendations will be sent to the MC’s general house meeting for approval.
“This time, the civic body will develop the app itself as there will be four parking zones and these will be handled by four different contractors. Learning from our previous experience, this time the app will not have parking space booking facility as it is not practical. It will have real-time space occupancy option,” said a member of the committee.
Parking committee chairman and former mayor Arun Sood said: “The Municipal Corporation will develop a single mobile application for all zones. Besides a swipe machine, other digital modes of payment will be provided by the licensee at every parking site. There will be a single control room for all lots in the MC building.”
It was also decided to exempt certain parking lots in Sector 20, 22 and 7 due to feasibility issues. It is being decided that three to four parking lots can be reduced. Parking rates and violation penalty for contactors will be decided in the next meeting. There are likely to be parking passes zone-wise.
“To avoid previous instances where the contractor did not pay penalty on time, we are going to take advance cheques of 36 months from the four contractors. If they fault on norms, we will fill the cheque of the required amount. Besides, we will also take three-year bank guaranty from them. There will be all smart features, including proper marking, hi-definition night vision cameras, display board, boom barriers at required places and staff in uniform,” said the members.
Certain parking lots to be exempted
It was also decided to exempt certain parking lots in Sector 20, 22 and 7 due to feasibility issues. It is being decided that three to four parking lots can be reduced. Parking rates and violation penalty for contactors will be decided in the next meeting. There are likely to be parking passes zone-wise.
