Shimla: To provide parking facilities to tourists, the Municipal Corporation (MC), Shimla will soon convert two of its parking lots into smart parking lots. This will enable them to pre-book parking spaces for their vehicles on these sites through an online application.
The MC, in collaboration with Germany-based Coco Park Company, is going to provide this online booking facility in parking lots near Lift and at Dhali with a parking capacity of around 700 and 150 vehicles respectively. This scheme will be started on a pilot basis in these parking lots.
Dheeraj Chandel, Project Director, Shimla, said that the Municipal Corporation has planned to convert two parking lots into smart parking lots and tourists will be able to pre-book parking slots for their vehicles through an application. He said that this scheme is being implemented on a pilot basis, through which it will be seen how successful this initiative can be. He said, “If successful, this scheme will be implemented in every parking lot in the city.” Apart from this, an LED screen will be installed at Taradevi, 8 km from the capital, on which the status of available parking spaces in the selected parking lots will be displayed. According to municipal corporation officials, this will help people to know the total number of reserved and vacant parking spaces available in the parking lots.
At present, the municipal corporation is preparing a mobile application, which will be available for use soon. Due to lack of parking facilities in the city, locals as well as tourists face problems in finding parking spaces for their vehicles. Many times people have no option but to park their vehicles on the roadside, which leads to congestion on the roads as well as frequent traffic jams. The parking problem is at its peak during the tourist season during summer and winter.