THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:City’s traffic snarls and parking issues are fast becoming a double-edged sword to tackle with. Even as the number of vehicles on the roads has increased exponentially on one hand and the widening of roads is going on a snail’s pace, a healthy suggestion came up during the first-round of discussions at the Mvironment initiative, a movement launched to comprehensively compile projects under implementation by 15 major government departments spearheaded by architect N Mahesh. IL&FS has suggested developing an integrated app for transport and parking giving due emphasis on supply side management (authorities) and demand side management (public).
The app is to work in tune with parking ticket vending machines to ease the pay and park facility. This can be attached to parking lots or authorised public parking spaces to levy the parking fee from the user. “This is a concept to connect a mobile application with the pay and park facility so that the user can avail the ticket from the machine and make payment through the internet payment gateway via the mobile app. To make it a foolproof mechanism, initially, an enforcement mechanism must work alongwith it,” said Anilkumar Pandala, project director of Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Limited (TRDCL), an SPV of IL&FS.
Now, TRDCL is compiling a list of roadsides, to be submitted to Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB), to ascertain where vehicle parking can be opened by charging a fee. With the ages-old plans of setting up multi-level parking zones in busy areas and thereby eliminating roadside parking still remaining a concept, the redressal of parking woes needs a much more real time approach. Wherever possible, a parking infrastructure will come up on vacant public lands. For this a parking registry will be maintained that will have details of the vacant places.