Bids for Hyderabad Metro Rail's 'smart parking' lots finalised

Two-wheeler and four-wheeler owners/drivers, by using GPS, can digitally check the availability of their desired parking lot before hand.

Hyderabad: Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) on Tuesday said bids on private-public partnership mode have been finalised to develop the integrated smart parking management system at the 24 Metro rail stations in the operational 30-km stretch of Miyapur-Nagole here.

"While three companies have placed their bids, Zruti Solutions, in technical collaboration with Agile Parking Solutions Pvt Ltd, a company with international smart parking experience, got selected as the licencee," HMRL managing director NVS Reddy said in a press release.

Zruti Solutions would invest about Rs 8 crore and create 'on-street smart parking facilities' at the Metro stations, maintain and operate them and would also pay HMRL a sum of over Rs 7 crore as licence fee over a 20-year period, Reddy said.

In November 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the 30-km stretch between Miyapur and Nagole, out of the 72-km-long elevated Hyderabad Metro Rail Project.

Under the brand name 'Park Hyderabad,' the Integrated Smart Parking System of HMRL would be based on a comprehensive digital solution, which would handle the entire gamut of parking issues without much human intervention.

"It will have a citizen mobile app which provides real-time information from all the on-street smart parking lots at the Metro stations," Reddy said.

Two-wheeler and four-wheeler owners/drivers, by using their GPS, can digitally check the availability of their desired parking lot before they travel to any Metro station, Reddy explained.

They can simply use the service through their smartphones and the system would display the available bays to park their vehicles in about 4,000 two-wheeler parking bays and 400 four-wheeler parking bays at the Metro stations, he said.

The users can then book vacant colour-coded bay numbers and use their allotted parking bays through either electronic payment or cash payment, he said.

The parking fees are Rs 3 per hour for a two-wheeler and Rs 8 per hour for a four-wheeler and all transactions would be digitalised, ensuring transparency, he said.

Parking violations would be detected both electronically and manually and compliance would be ensured by security personnel of the private licencee under the supervision of the traffic police, Reddy said.

The parking areas at the Metro stations, which would be aesthetically developed with shelters, would also have free Wi-Fi and other facilities, he said.

The attractive smart parking lots would become hubs of activity with CCTV cameras linked to a central command and control centre, he added.