Date:21/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/21/stories/2008122152150300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Metered parking in select areas

Kannal Achuthan

A five-rupee coin will be fed into the meter to get parking permission for one hour

File Photo

NEW SYSTEM: Metered parking, such as this one in Hyderabad, is to be introduced in a few locations in Chennai soon. —

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation will soon introduce parking meters in several locations in order to regulate on-street parking.

The civic body has identified 12 locations in the city to introduce the system of parking meters, which will be used to collect parking fees from four-wheelers. A five-rupee coin would have to be fed into the meter to obtain parking permission for one hour.

The locations chosen for the metered on-street parking include stretches of: Anna Nagar Third Avenue; Anna Nagar Second Avenue; Purasawalkam High Road; General Patters Road; Mylapore North Mada Street; Pondy Bazaar; CSIR Road; Sardar Patel Road in Gandhi Nagar and Whites Road in Royapettah. If these locations are put together, about 1,100 cars can be accommodated at a time in the on-street parking slots.

The civic body had floated tenders to identify a private firm that will install and operate the parking meters. Two firms – Smart Car Parking and Millenium Parking – had bid for the project. Millenium Parking has offered the Corporation a higher percentage of the earnings from the parking system and its proposal will be placed before the Corporation Council for approval.

Parking meters have already been introduced in cities such as Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The system is fairly simple. A car user can drop a Rs.-5 coin into the meter and obtain a slip on which the entry time and vehicle number will be printed. The permit would have to be displayed prominently on the dashboard of the car so that the parking attendant can view it. Parking fee for two hours is Rs.10 and for three hours Rs. 15.

A Corporation official said a car user could use the parking slot to a maximum of three hours only.

Those who want to park their vehicle beyond three hours would have to drive to another vacant slot and take a fresh permit. This procedure would prevent users from using the parking slot as a permanent spot to leave their vehicles, the official said. A parking meter would serve about 10 to 15 parking slots so that a person does not have to walk too long to obtain a permit.

The meters, however, will not replace parking attendants. Attendants would have to monitor the parking slots to check if the time allowed has expired and, if it has, fix clamps on the vehicle’s wheels to prevent it from moving out. The vehicle can be towed away if the fee is not paid.

In the pilot project for the 12 locations, the meters would only be able to accept coins. If its operation is successful, credit/debit card payment would also be enabled, said officials.