Firm proposes automated parking in Mysore

Bangalore's Brigade Road may become a model for Mysore's Devaraj Urs Road for dealing with the parking woes of the Wodeyars' city.

Smart Interpark SDN BHD of Malaysia has recommended an automated parking system like the one on Brigade Road in Bangalore on this thoroughfare of Mysore.

CEO S Sundar of Smart Interpark SDN BHD visited Mysore on August 10 and held discussions with the Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao and the City Corporation Commissioner KN Chandrashekar.

He inspected the traffic flow on the Devraj Urs Road, Dhanvantri Road and at the taxi stand and the KSRTC bus stand. He also made a presentation on the solar-operated automated parking machines.

Manufactured by a French firm, Parkeon, the pay and display parking terminal manages between 10 and 75 spaces. The user receives a ticket on payment for the set parking time. Each machine costs Rs 5 lakh. Over 3,000 cities around the world have adopted this automated pay parking system to manage a wide range of parking issues.

Sundar told Business Standard that Devaraj Urs Road could be the pilot project for Mysore with about 10 modules and the project costing around Rs 30 lakh to manage 200 vehicles. It can be a public-private partnership (PPP) so that the local shopkeepers' association can manage the system and earn a share of the revenue generated. The money thus earned could be ploughed back to further develop the road.

Traffic assistant commissioner of police Jayakumar said it was time to find parking solutions on some of the main roads of Mysore as the number of vehicles are increasing.

The police authorities were planning alternative parking place to ease the vehicle congestion in front of the KSRTC bus stand on the busy Bangalore-Nilgiri Road.

Explaining the Brigade Road's success in overcoming parking hassles by adopting automated parking system, Brigades Shops & Establishments Association (BSEA) secretary Suhail Yusuff said under PPP it had procured eight machines from Malaysia for Rs 40 lakh, installed them on the road and created 85 parking bays.

The revenue is shared between BSEA and Greater Bangalore City Corporation, under the BOST (build, operate, share and transfer) project.

"Thanks to this smart parking system, the business on the Brigade Road has gone up 40 per cent and the revenues of the BBMP many folds," Suhail said.

Sundar and Yusuff also visited Hyderabad before coming to Mysore and have recommended automated parking for about 10 roads.