The parking attendant typed the vehicle’s registration number when the white hatchback entered the parking lot opposite the Oberoi Grand at 12.23pm on Saturday.
When the car left at 2.40pm, a receipt with the time of the car’s entry in the parking bay, the time of exit and the total amount to be paid — Rs 80 — was handed over to the car’s owner.
The stretch opposite the Oberoi Grand was among a handful of places in the city where parking fee was collected digitally on Saturday, the day the revised rates came into effect.
Under the new rates, a four-wheeler has to pay Rs 20 an hour for the first two hours, Rs 40 an hour for the third to fifth hours and Rs 100 an hour for every hour the car remains parked beyond the fifth hour.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has promised tocompletely do away with cash payments of parking fees in an attempt to weed out overcharging by attendants.
Complaints of fleecing are not uncommon. Attendants have been accused of asking for Rs 50 an hour, or even more, for parking in some places.
Civic officials said digital payments will cut out the possibility of overcharging. If the receipt being handed over to a car occupant while leaving has the time of entry, the time of exit and the amount to be paid mentioned on it, no one will agree to pay anything more than the mentioned amount, said a KMC official.
“The digital payments will also make sure that the money does not go to an individual’s pocket,” said an official.
The available options for payments are debit/credit cards and UPI payments.
But if the occupant in the car does not possess a card or cannot make UPI payments either, still they will be able to park the car. The occupant of the car can request the parking attendant to send a link for payment to any family member or friend or acquaintance.
“The person in the car will tell the attendant the phone number where a text message with a link for payment will go. Once the payment is made the car can leave with the receipt,” said a KMC official.
The KMC has also launched a mobile app — s-Parking — that people can download to see vacant parking slots in an area before they reach the place.
A north Kolkata resident questioned the steep parking fee hike.
He said if the civic body was trying to reduce the entry of private cars in the city to reduce air pollution, it should first work with the state government to improve the public transport system.
“There should be more buses so that people can travel comfortably,” he said.