Chennai to get a smart parking system

smart parking system

Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is all set to introduce a smart parking system this month. The system will incorporate 4,375 parking slots at 80 locations across the city.

Motorists will be able to make bookings for the parking spaces using the “GCC Smart Parking” App that can be downloaded from Google Play Store. Areas including Marina Beach, T.Nagar, Besant Nagar, Anna Nagar and Nungambakkam will be covered in the first phase.

The system was supposed to be launched on October 2 but was postponed owing to the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Chennai.

According to reports, Khader Nawaz Khan Road will be the only ‘premium’ parking space, with a charge of 40 per hour; the road has 134 parking slots monitored by 14 cameras. All other parking slots will have a charge of 20 per hour for cars and 5 per hour for motorcycles. Payment from motorists will be accepted by credit card and debit card and the parking time will be from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

A total of 460 cameras, covering 80 locations, are fixed for monitoring the smart parking system in the first phase.

In T. Nagar, places such as Pondy Bazaar, Panagal Park, G.N.Chetty Road, Venkatnarayana Road and 13 other roads will get smart parking. In Anna Nagar, Second Avenue, Third Avenue, Fourth Avenue Shanthi Colony, Vavin, Jawaharlal Nehru Salai and Padi near Saravana Stores will get the smart parking system.

Over 200 attendees wearing red T-shirts and green jackets will assist the motorists at each parking location. Also, a third-party audit is underway.

In the second phase, areas such as Royapettah, George Town and Mylapore will get 5,300 parking slots. The system will be Artificial Intelligence (AI) based, with 8-megapixel cameras monitoring at least 15 to 20 parking slots.

GCC has also planned to launch a parking system for residents who do not have any parking space at home. Monthly parking permit passes are expected to be available at a nominal cost. At least one lakh parking slots will be allocated to residents along all the streets which will be monitored by cameras.