Pay-and-park meters for busy streets

COIMBATORE: Soon a quick shopping trip to the busy commercial streets, including DB Road in RS Puram, Oppanakara Street, Race Course Road, Cross Cut Road and Dr Nanjappa Road, would mean an additional fee for parking your vehicle. The civic body is expected to raise the rates to 4 per hour for two wheelers and 20 per hour for four wheelers using the paid parking slots which are being planned.The entire system will be automated and will be a mobile phone-based system maintained by a private service provider.
“We have conducted a detailed survey and identified the stretches where the system will be implemented in the city. It will be fully automated,” said S Latha, commissioner, Coimbatore Municipal Corporation.
The civic body has divided the core city areas into five zones covering 28 streets. As 3,990 paid parking slots would be set up.
“The system is likely to be implemented first on one of the commercial streets like Oppanakara Street,” said a corporation official.
The corporation is planning to opt for a system in which vehicle users will be able to register using their mobile phone number and vehicle registration number. Users can either sign up using parking recharge coupons or opt for a tie-up with their bank accounts and get a monthly bill. The corresponding fare will be deducted from their bank account.
Every time they use the parking space an SMS will have to be sent to a phone number to be provided by the parking management service provider. This will activate the parking meter for the particular vehicle and another SMS will have to be sent when the vehicle is being taken out of the spot to stop the meter. “It is a similar principle to pre-paid and post paid mobile phone connections,” Latha added.
The system was proposed as part of the city development plan that was mooted along with the state government appointed consultants from Institute of Transport and Development Policy (ITDP).
City residents, however, might take some time to come to terms with the automated parking plans. “I do not support this initiative as I think the corporation should not charge for parking vehicles on streets. Most people just park vehicles for 10 or 15 minutes most of the time,” said S Kiran Kumar, a cotton agent and a resident of Ponniahrajapuram who had come to DB Road in RS Puram.