People living in South Delhi will soon be able to find authorised parking sites in their area using Google. P S Jha, deputy commissioner of the RP cell, south corporation, said they are in talks with the company to map the exact parking spaces on Google Maps. The move, when implemented, will help people differentiate between authorised parking lots and those run by the “parking mafia”, he added.
While several parking spaces are currently marked on Google, they are crowd-sourced. Officials said this is why people can’t differentiate between the ones run by the corporation and those run privately or by people posing as corporation staff.
Jha said the move is likely to be implemented in a couple of months as the South MCD already has complete data of its parking sites — with maps, exact locations and number of spaces — which it will provide to Google.
Bid to clear confusion
With vehicular population in the capital touching 1 crore, finding parking slots is a daunting task even as the increasing number of vehicles choke the city’s roads, footpaths and open spaces.
The responsibility of providing adequate parking lies with the civic bodies, which also levy a one-time parking fee at the time of registration of any new vehicle.
To curb parking mafia and control congestion, the corporation also plans to make yellow boxes at all its parking sites, so that people know where an authorised parking site ends and an unauthorised one starts.
“There will be two kinds of yellow boxes — one vertical, and the other diagonal. This will show people the way in which they have to park,” said an official. The diagonal ones will be used in areas where parking spaces are close to roads, so that it does not affect vehicular movement, he said.
According to estimates, SDMC has space for around 26,000 vehicles in 113 authorised parking spaces, from which it earns over Rs 107 crore annually.
Officials said if they are able to implement the plan, this figure can go up to Rs 125 crore as the “parking mafia” is believed to be impacting revenue.
