With an increasing number of people expected to use their own vehicles to commute to offices—instead of public transport or ride-sharing—this may lead to parking problems at corporate complexes. Amit Lakhotia, the founder of Park+, sees this as an opportunity. The start-up has a solution that lets you find a parking space, as well as book it in advance. “We are trying to get cars off the street into existing and underutilised parking spaces. Parking at the right places can turn decongest our streets,” Lakhotia says. Park+ not only helps a driver find parking space, in case you have an idle parking space you can rent it out as well. The solution is both for four-wheelers and two-wheelers.
The basic infrastructure needed to install the Park+ solution is an RFID reader at the entry point of a parking area, and then one can opt for multiple layers such as a traffic light kind of signal, or even a barrier. The current users include corporate office complexes, residential societies and shopping malls/hotels. “Some of the biggest shopping malls such as Infinity, Inorbit and Forum use our solutions,” Lakhotia adds.
Park+ makes money based on the number of gates the user has, as well as the number of vehicles. Corporate office complexes, in particular, are a promising area for Park+. “Our solution saves time, as there are no parking issues once it’s up and running. For the corporates, this means a lot. For example, even 10 minutes of parking time saved for every employee in a 100-employee company, this adds up to substantial time savings. This is also a feel-good factor for employees,” he says.
This solution, Lakhotia adds, isn’t a clone of parking solutions developed in the West, but is India-specific. “Most cities in developed countries are designed keeping cars in mind. But that isn’t the case with India. So, India needs unique parking solutions. And especially so because in the last 15-odd years the number of cars has increased manifold,” he says. At the same time, he also foresees its application in markets outside India. “In a year’s time we will start catering to other markets as well, as parking problems are in every country.”
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