CHENNAI: This month, Greater Chennai Corporation will roll out its newest app, for smart parking across 4,583 spaces in Anna Nagar, Purasawalkam High Road, Marina Beach and Besant Nagar. The civic body has also started marking 193 equivalent car spaces (ECS) along Khader Nawaz Khan Road in Nungambakkam, where drivers will be charged premium parking fees of 40 per ECS. People heading to any of the four places in the city can check availability of parking spaces on the GCC Smart Parking System app. “As one approaches (the place), he will be alerted of the distance to the closest parking lot and vacant slots,” said M Tamilarasan, director of Toorq Media Services, which is the service provider for the project. After booking a slot, one can pay the fee using any digital platform. The user is also sent an alert 55 minutes later about the time limit coming to an end and can pay extra for an extension. “Those paying in cash will have to pay an additional 2 or 5 to the ticketing agency,” an official added.

Data on the duration of parking will be relayed to the back-end server at the corporation. This data will also reflect on the attendant’s app. “The app on the user’s phone will be limited to showing the location of parking spaces and the number of vacant slots. After logging in, fare details and the duration of parking is noted,” said an official from Chennai Smart City Ltd. As part of the project, the corporation has identified stretches of 20km across the four locations which will be monitored using CCTV cameras. “Anyone found parking their vehicles in places besides the designated parking slots will be charged a penalty. For roads which are not bus route stretches, a penalty four times the cost of a parking slot will be levied. For cars, for instance, the penalty will be 80 in a non-premium location,” said Tamilarasan.

Civic body sources, however, added that in the first two months, visitors to Marina Beach will have free access to the parking spaces so they can get a hang of the system.Read More..