The Indian Express                         23.03.2013

Corporators stonewall move to make pay-and-park transparent

A proposal to detect and check malpractices in pay-and-park lots was deferred by corporators at a statutory standing committee meeting Friday.

The civic administration has proposed to purchase 600 hand-held devices costing Rs 6.84 lakh to make the system transparent and prevent overcharging by contractors.

The proposal will now be considered at the next meeting.

The corporators strangely claimed the new system was hi-tech and if it turns out to be faulty, would result in wasteful expenditure.

"In case the online booking system, which is very hi-tech, turns faulty it will be waste of public funds. Also, why should BMC incur such liability? Instead, this shoud be added in tender conditions," said Asif Zakaria of Congress.

Under the web-based system, printed receipts will be generated by a hand-held device and given to motorists in BMC parking lots.

The data of these receipts will be transferred to the central BMC server.

The system also includes an option for motorists to book parking slots online.

An attendant will key in all details of a car — its make, number and area and time of parking.

When a vehicle exits a lot, the attendant will generate a receipt and charge the motorist based on parking time.

"The new system is highly technical and without know-how one cannot approve such a model. We will check how the system works and consider the proposal at a later stage," said Rahul Shewale, standing committee chairman.

The contract for web-based parking has been given to Geodesic Limited, which has estimated the cost of each hand-held device at Rs 19,000.