Smart move: (H)appy fix to parking pangs

KOLKATA: An app, it seems, is finally ready to take care of your parking woes. The “exceedingly good response” during the trial runs of a

parking app

, which had been launched by the cops in association with KMC, has prompted Kolkata Police to ease out the old parking system in the city.

As of now, KMC parking attendants at Park Street, Camac Street, Russel Street, Middleton Street, Middleton Row and Lord Sinha Road are using this app, christened Smart Parking Agent. By the end of this week, stretches of Hungerford Street and roads in and around Dalhousie are likely to be covered. “We have handed over 100 smartphones — with the app already downloaded — to parking attendants in these six stretches. In the next 10 days, we plan to take this number to 200,” said Sumit Kumar, DC (traffic).

According to

Vineet Goel

, additional CP (I), the app has been designed keeping carowners in mind. “At present, there is no way that a motorist knows if there is parking space available at a particular parking lot. Through this app, we will guide them to available slots and even redirect them to another nearby parking lot if the one in which he wishes to park his car is full,”

Goel

explained.

Using the app, even sergeants can now monitor whether a parking lot is running to capacity. “Each road will have a sector officer He will be moving around the parking lots to ensure that parking agents are not making extra parking space for a premium by illegally increasing the number of slots. “The idea is also to keep track of those cars that block up a parking slot for almost an entire day but do not pay accordingly. We want to make parking not only easier but also a democratic exercise,” said Goel.

According to another top officer, parking details are being shared with KMC on a day-to-day basis. “Not only will this ensure more revenue for the civic body, it will also help KMC to plan better and maybe make adjustments to its parking policy on a case-to-case basis,” the officer said.

Motorists and parking attendants have welcomed the move. “The worst part of the previous system was the high-handedness of a section of attendants. Since we had no proof of when we parked our car, there was little we could do to challenge their claims. This new system will abolish that possibility,” said

Satish Agarwal

, who parks his car at Park Street regularly.

Subodh Nandy, who has been working as a parking agent since 2003 at Park Street, said the app will ensure that everyone pays up. “The high and mighty tries to forcefully occupy slots for hours. The practice will come to an end now,” he said.