Chennai to get parking meters shortly

The city will soon have parking meters to regulate on-street parking. A pilot scheme has been proposed on a one-km stretch in Pondy Bazaar.

The meters will be placed every 100 meters along parking lots. Vehicle owners have to pay the charges by inserting coins or currency into the slot and printing the tickets, which have to be prominently displayed. Vehicles without proper tickets will be towed away and fined.

The Chennai Corporation has drawn inspiration from Bangalore city, which introduced parking meters on Brigade Road in 2005.

Tenders have been called for supplying parking meters, each of which is expected to cost Rs.40,000. The pedestal meters will be placed on the pavement without obstructing pedestrian flow.

Parking meters have become necessary because the 104 Corporation parking lots in Chennai yield poor revenue. In 2005, they earned Rs.1,56,18,326, which came down to Rs.1,18,56,154 in 2007. This is much less than the revenue accruing from the far fewer number of car parking lots in private theatres and malls, which earn anything between Rs.40 lakh to 60 lakh a year. The Corporation’s parking lots are managed by TEXCO, an organisation of ex-servicemen, since 1996. The charges have been kept low. According to a source in the Corporation, the parking lots have not been auctioned because of the fear that contractors might harass users. Also, it was felt that there would be difficulty in controlling the collection and managing the agreement.