Setback for app-based car parking in Kolkata as majority of attendants ask for cash

KOLKATA: The progress in the implementation of the app-based car parking system in the city has suffered a setback after the recent parking fee rollback with most attendants refusing to use the digital payment system and instead asking for cash.

However, civic officials contend that the soon-to-be launched e-tender for parking fee collection will allow only those agencies to participate that use the POS machines and agree to online payment.
A civic official said parking agencies who have been delivered POS machines have been asked to utilize them. But a survey of the ground situation revealed that a majority of parking attendants are no longer using these machines.
Vehicle owners alleged that even after the rollback, attendants are charging extra money from them.
According to a parking attendant on duty in Russel Street, the POS machine which was handed over to him wasn't reading the exact parking fee after the rollback. "At a time when I was slowly getting comfortable with the new POS machine, the fee rollback happened. Now, the machine fails to read the exact rates. Under compulsion I have started taking cash from the motorists," said the attendant requesting anonymity.
Similarly, an attendant manning a parking lot on JL Nehru Road complained of a poor network for failure of the POS machines. "Our endeavour to offer the motorists a cashless transaction has been suffering due to a network failure. We have conveyed our inability to the civic brass and are waiting for a restoration of the network soon," said an attendant.
However, the civic brass has made it clear to the parking agencies that they would need to use the POS machines at all costs else the agencies will lose their credentials to participate in an e-tender to be floated to select eligible agencies for running of the city's 500 parking lots. "We have made use of the POS machines mandatory for the agencies as we don't want to go back to the manual system under any circumstances to bring transparency in the collection of parking fees. If any agencies fail to implement the app-based parking system, the agency in question will be barred from participating in the e-tender," said Debasish Kumar, member, mayor-in-council overseeing the KMC car parking department.
Sunirmal Basu, a resident of Tollygunge and a private firm employee, alleged that the civic body's fee rollback decision couldn't be made effective as a section of the parking attendants were still demanding extra. "I was asked to pay four times more than the normal fee in the Park Street area," alleged Basu.
According to a KMC car parking department official, the civic body has handed over around 500 POS machines to parking agencies and asked the agencies to operate all of them at the designated parking lots. The official said the KMC car parking department would need to distribute another 1,000 POS machines within a year to bring parking lots across the city under the cashless transaction.