Parking fees can be paid in digital mode in some parts of the city from January 18, Debasish Kumar, mayoral council member heading the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's car parking department, said on Wednesday.
Gradually, digital payment will be introduced in all parking lots in Kolkata and cash collection will be stopped, said Kumar.
The payments can be made by debit or credit cards through point of sale (POS) machines. One can also make UPI payments, said a senior official of the civic body.
The authorities will role out an app which can be downloaded on mobile phones and will give real-time information on the number of slots available in any parking lot at any given point of time, the official said.
Overcharging, refusal to hand receipts for payments and absence of parking rate charts are common woes Kolkatans face when they try to park their cars or two-wheelers anywhere in the city.
Such illegal practices have been going on for years. In some stray cases the authorities did announce some punitive actions, but failed to curb violation of rules by those who run parking lots.
The introduction of digital payments and the launch of the app holds out the promise of change.
“We have purchased 100 POS machines. The digital payment service and the app will be formally inaugurated on January 18. If we cannot start the operations on January 18, we will do so the next day,” Kumar said.
One of the stretches where digital payments will be rolled out in the first phase is opposite The Oberoi Grand, along the median divider on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in the central business district.
A number of Kolkatans recounted their experiences of having to pay way more that the legal parking fee in recent times. A man in his 30s said he had to pay Rs 40 for keeping his car parked for two hours along Elgin Road in south Kolkata last week, which is double the actual rate.
Another man said he was asked to pay Rs 30 for an hour in Beckbagan a few weeks ago. Neither of them was given a receipt.
The KMC has long discontinued the practice of handing previously printed receipts.
The cooperative agencies that manage parking lots in the city and collect fees are supposed to keep hand-held machines for printing receipts the spots. The receipts printed by the machines have the time of a vehicle’s entry and exit mentioned on them.
Going by the experience of the users, only a handful of cooperative agencies use such machines.
In most places in the city, parking attendants say an amount, collect it and never issue any receipt. If someone insists on a receipt, they bring out old receipts with Rs 10 or Rs 20 written on them.
Kumar said the new system had been thought of to address such problems. “All information will be routed to the server of the KMC. We will be able to monitor things better,” he said.
“Whenever a car enters a parking lot, an attendant will give a token with the time of entry mentioned on it. While leaving, a receipt with the exit time will be provided,” said a senior official of the KMC.
“One can also pay remotely. A text message containing a link will be sent. One can pay remotely through the link. Someone else in the family can pay for a person who is not aware any digital payment process,” the official said.
The police had earlier designed an app with similar features but it never took off in a big way.
PEEVE POINTS
■ Users are charged Rs 20 or Rs 30 an hour, which is twice or thrice the actual rate
■ No receipt is given after payment
■ No token is issued when a car is parked
■ No rate chart in parking lots