CHENNAI: Come weekends, Chennaites will be seen scrambling for vacant spots to park their vehicles in the city. This, quite often, results in road congestion and even traffic jams. To help motorists easily find a parking spot before they even step out of their homes, Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) is planning to launch an app to book slots.
CUMTA special officer I Jayakumar told TNIE that the app is under development and would be available in two months. This would allow vehicle owners to book parking slots and also intimate them 10 minutes prior to expiry of their parking time.
The app would be part of the new parking norms which will be introduced in Anna Nagar once the state rolls out a parking policy. “The final draft of the parking policy is ready and the policy is likely to be rolled out within a month. We will be implementing parking management in phases,” said Jayakumar.
He added that parking should be seen as a tool to manage urban mobility and it should not be taken for granted as free, as roads are owned by urban local bodies. “We have also given a formula for parking pricing which could differ based on the area. But finally it will be worked out in consultation with local bodies.”
“Earlier, the parking fee was collected by local bodies and fines were collected by the police. Now the entire parking will be managed by CUMTA through a control centre. We will have a vendor who will take pictures of vehicles in no parking areas and the picture will be sent to CUMTA. This will be forwarded to the enforcement wing which will have policemen solely deputed for CUMTA. They will collect the parking fine. This will also put less burden on police as the entire parking management will be under a single authority,” said Jayakumar.
“Currently, we are identifying parking slots in a five sq.km area. There could be around 1,500 parking slots. Once the parking policy is rolled out, we will float a tender to identify a vendor for the pilot project. Based on the success, it will be replicated,” said Jayakumar.