Queues and frequent brawls for parking at Connaught Place (CP) are going to be the stuff of history. With automatic boom barriers and parking-availability boards, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) recently opened the upgraded facility at F-Block of CP. All parking lots in the busy shopping-office hub are set to get a similar makeover by September-end.

Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) limited, which has now taken over all the parking lots from the NDMC for upgrading, maintaining and operating them, recently opened its first facility in the busy CP area. “At present, DIMTS has opened the upgraded parking lot in CP’s inner circle - the parking lot in front of F-Block. We expect that all other spaces in the area will be upgraded by the end of September,” said a senior NDMC official.

To ensure people themselves do not tend to drive-in at full lots, the DIMTS has also made a provision of Variable-Message Sign (VMS) boards. “All parking lots in the inner circle of CP will have boards which will inform drivers about vacancies. Our aim is to make the parking system more structured and safe for users,” said Jalaj Shrivastava, chairman of NDMC.

Barring four parking sites, the DIMTS is to taking over 99 existing lots of the civic agency. In the proposal submitted by the company, 26 identified off-street parking sites are set to get a major enhancement with boom barrier computers, entry and exit stations, vacancy lights and booths. These include all the parking lots in inner and outer circles of CP along with that in Janpath. Besides,handheld devices will also be provided at 73 parking spaces as a fall-back mechanism for the issue of parking tickets to ensure all revenues are captured at the backend.

For on-street parking, online GPRS enabled handheld devices will be used by the operators. “28 off-street parking sites will be provided only with handheld devices because volume of transaction in these spaces is very low as they are of less than 500 square metre,” said an official.

The agency’s move has also minimised the role of private contractors operating in these parking lots. “Private contractors let in cars in their parking lots even when it is full which often leads to congestion in many areas. Besides, people have also complained that they over-charge users. With DIMTS taking over, parking rates shall be uniform and systematic,” said another official.