Motorists can attest to the fact that it’s not just traffic jams that test their patience. In a city that is increasingly becoming crunched for space, finding a parking spot has become equally challenging. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) hopes to put an end to this with implementation of its smart parking project.
With the help of sensors installed along 85 roads, information on availability of parking slots will be transmitted to a monitoring cell, which will relay the same to motorists via an app.
The project, which initially faced some hiccups, was recently approved by the State government. However, work is likely to be taken up only after the Lok Sabha elections.
BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said that as many as 13,600 parking slots to accommodate 3,600 cars and 10,000 two-wheelers will be created on the chosen roads, which are all in the Central Business District. These roads are categorised into A (premium), B (commercial) and C (general) groups on the basis of the tariff for paid parking.
“The tender was approved and sent to the government, but was rejected on technical grounds. The BBMP resubmitted the file with all relevant documents once again,” said Mr. Prasad. The government order giving a green signal to implementation of the project was issued on March 7, days ahead of the announcement of Lok Sabha polls.
Explaining how the smart parking system will work, Mr. Prasad said slots will be demarcated and sensors will be installed. Once a vehicle is parked, the sensor will send a signal to the receptor, which will then be sent to the central control room. A mobile application is being developed to inform citizens about the available parking spaces on various roads.
The parking fee can be paid through the app or at the smart parking meters installed on the roads. CCTV cameras will also be installed as a security measure.
