The city’s first multi-storey robotic public parking lot at Bhulabhai Desai Road in the heart of south Mumbai has finally been handed over to the BMC after being renovated and re-launched on Thursday. The 21-storey (ground + 20 floors) car park can accommodate approximately 240 vehicles, the BMC said.
The car park will be kept opened 24x7. The robotic car park has been developed in a highrise tower, Hubtown Skybay, at Bhulabhai Desai Road.
The first-of-its-kind multi-storeyed facility will be operated on robotics technology. This was passed in 2008 and was developed by a builder on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. It was maintained for five years by them, after which it was handed over to the BMC.
According to the contract, the agency maintained and collected revenue for five years. In 2015, it was handed over to the BMC.
The parking lot was lying unused since 2015. Later, the civic body realised that the robotic mechanism that operates the parking lot had malfunctioned and is beyond repair. The parking lot was then shut down in March 2019.
However, now the BMC has set up a new robotic mechanism to get the parking lot working. This was launched and inaugurated by environment minister Aditya Thackeray on Thursday, in the presence of Mayor Kishori Pednekar, MP Arvind Sawant, Guardian Minister Aslam Shaikh and officials of D ward (Malabar hill, Breach Candy, Napeansea road).