The Hindu       06.03.2013

First public automated parking lot to rise soon

The Chennai Corporation’s first automated multi-level parking lot will be ready by June.

The civil work for the facility at Wallace Garden is nearing completion. The multi-level parking lot is coming up on a portion of the Nungambakkam Canal opposite Apollo Hospitals. Upon completion, the facility would be able to accommodate 200 four-wheelers and 290 two-wheelers.

Though work began over two years ago, protests from residents over concrete work carried out at night and some litigation delayed the work. Retaining walls have been constructed along the canal to ensure free flow of water.

Sources in the Chennai Corporation said the construction of the roof over the top floor was completed recently. “The lift system will soon be installed. Orders for the automatic parking system have been already placed,” said a source.

Cars would be automatically placed in vacant slots. Drivers would only need to drive the car into the lift room. Retrieval time for one car is estimated at just two minutes.

Once the parking lot becomes operational, residents of Greams Lane and Wallace Garden areas will have some relief as vehicles would not congest the roads in the areas.

An engineer who has worked closely with Chennai Corporation’s projects in the past said that parking lots required large investments and many companies were not willing to take up the works as they were wary of objects and legal wrangles.

“In other metro cities too such parking lot projects took some time before taking off. The completion of the Nungambakkam parking facility will pave the way for other companies to come forward,” he explained.

The city, he said, was badly in need of parking lots, especially in commercial areas including Purasawalkam, Anna Nagar and T. Nagar. “Another problem is that such areas do not have large tracts of land,” he explained.

Earlier proposals that did not take off include an underground parking lot on Venkatnarayana Road and one on Panagal Park itself. Two proposals submitted as part of the recent T. Nagar redevelopment plan too are yet to be taken up.

Previously, bids were received for a lot at Flower Bazaar that can accommodate 700 two-wheelers