New Mobility with next generation Parking

In a rapidly growing economy where mobility stands at the epicenter of the driving mechanism, it is impertinent that relevant stakeholders join together to swiftly find scalable, affordable and adaptable parking solutions. As part of the Smart Mobility conference, the panelists discussed various advancements in the realm of parking and its associated technology solutions, all in relation with growing demand on urbanization, increasing sales of cars and the associated impact of these on parking space.

With a car being sold every 10 seconds on one hand, and rapid urbanization happening on the other hand, the demand on parking space is unimaginable.

Akhilesh Srivastava

Setting the context of the session, Akhilesh Srivastava, World Economic Forum – Leading Road Safety 2.0 in India, stated that as per a recent study, in a metro city, 20% of the mobility time is the average time to search for parking and that too, very often, without finding a spot finally.. So, what are the solutions? Can technology help? Rough estimate by a traffic institute shows that Municipal Corporations can generate 27% of their revenue from parking which right now is two to three percent. This is the time for technocrats in this field to work out solutions for this problem.

Discovery of technology remains a challenge as many a time; solutions that are efficient and cheap go unnoticed due to gaps in distribution and marketing. Hence, a platform that has widespread reach is definitely the need of the hour.

Siddhartha Saha
Bosch India

Siddhartha Saha, Head – GTM, Parked Vehicle Ecosystem, Bosch India, spoke about the multiple layers that must be integrated in order for the parking problem to be addressed meaningfully in the country. These layers ranged from affordable infrastructure, supportive policies, progressive parking rates and even involvement of Private Banks, such as PaytmBank, Axis bank, into financial modelling. Mr. Saha went on to describe how BOSCH, which turned 100 years in 2023, has expanded its parking solutions to the open market after first adopting these process and technology for its internal consumption. He highlighted the absolute urgency to ensure that affordable & efficient technology is made available through a robust distribution and marketing platform.

If we line up all cars next to each other in New Delhi, we will cover more area than all of New York city. Hence, regular parking lots may not be the answer but innovative parking solutions are…

S L Bairwa
Delhi Municipal Corporation

To highlight challenges and opportunities in Public Parking, the Superintendent Engineer of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), S L Bairwa presented his views backed with more than 30 years of experience delivering on ground projects that has brought benefits to citizens. He quipped that despite receiving a lot of flak from public, they have delivered a staggering 386 numbers of infrastructure in New Delhi that can accommodate 44,000 four wheelers, 32,000 two wheelers and more than 1700 buses at a single instance.

Bairwa also stressed on the need to understand that traditional method of adding more parking lots is not necessarily the right or the only solution to meet the growing demand for parking. He proposed that both private and government sector should work together to consider avant-garde options such as separate office hours for private and government sector for instance so that there is no such concept as peak traffic hours. Dynamic parking rate at different times of the day and different day of the week is another suggestion made by him which he feels could create the necessary impetus in reducing parking woes for both commuters and authorities.

We have witnessed 27% increase in revenue collection after implementation of our automated cashless parking system.

Saugat Mahapatra
Barrel Scope Solutions

In a country where Innovation and Startups have almost become synonyms, the moderator invited Saugat Mahapatra, CEO and Co-Founder of Barrel Scope Solutions, a technology startup focused on advanced Parking solutions. His company, Barrel Scope, while processing more than four million vehicles per month, addresses three 3 major challenges in parking namely Time, Money and Accountability. The firm also manages India’s first FASTag based parking solution.

Through the use of advanced ANPR and automated Boom Barriers, there is saving in time as queue time is reduced significantly at both Entry and Exit points.

By using the FASTag wallet and RFID technology, parking fee is deducted automatically thus reducing cash transaction and physical contact. Statistically, when parking lots move from traditional hand written slip or token system to automated digital system, the daily collections go up by about 27% thus plugging a huge revenue loss due to cash handling leakage.

In a free flow non gated parking solution, identification of vehicle and deduction of fee can happen without physically stopping the vehicle. Implementation of this technology requires strong support from Policy makers and real estate owners.