Parking app trial run starts on Park St, Chowringhee

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) introduced the app-based car parking trial run at 2 city spots on Thursday. Though KMC said they officially launched the trial run across 62 spots in the city, motorists had to pay cash to parking attendants in most of the parking lots earmarked for trial run as the attendants failed to offer cashless transaction in absence of machines.
According to reports available from the KMC car parking department till Thursday evening, parking attendants in some areas were given the machines by their respective agencies that have been entrusted to run the city’s parking lots. “We handed over 62 hand-held machines to different cooperative agencies that run the parking lots. But at the end of the day, the system worked only in two parking lots — one in the Park Street area and the other on Jawaharlal Nehru Road. We hope that the system will slowly pick pace and gradually, the motorists will be able to take advantage of the transparent system,” said a KMC official, who has been a part of the team that has developed the new system.
Gautam Saha, a resident of Picnic Garden, was a fortunate biker who could access the new KMC-run app and book a slot at Md Ishaque Road located off Park Street. “I had tried to book a slot at a parking lot to park my bike in the afternoon. To my surprise, the system clicked and I got a slot at Md Ishaque Road. I parked my vehicle at 3.15pm and kept it there for over an hour. I took advantage of the cashless system and paid through my e-wallet,” said Saha.
According to a parking attendant posted at a parking lot on J L Nehru Road, he had to wait till afternoon for the app-based machine. “When my agency handed the machine, it was late afternoon. I waited for the motorists to book slots through the app. But at the end of the day, no transaction was made through the machines,” said the parking attendant.
A KMC car parking department official said the civic body was keeping an eye on the development and would compel the agencies running parking lots to ensure that each and every attendant gets the machine and participates in the trial run as soon as possible.