A multi-level car park with a capacity to accommodate around 3,000 vehicles will be constructed in New Town, said an official of Hidco that builds infrastructure in the township.

The parking lot has been planned keeping in mind the fact that the number of vehicles are expected to go up in the next few years when more people move into New Town.

Hidco wants to build the parking lot drawing from the experiences of office goers and people forced to park on the streets of Sector V because of lack of proper infrastructure.

The New Town car park when finished will be one of the largest in all three Action Areas and will come up on a plot measuring nearly one acre in the central business district or the financial hub opposite Biswa Bangla Convention Centre.

Parking already become an issue near Eco Park as Calcuttans make a beeline for the 480-acre recreational park on holidays.

According to Hidco, the estimated population of New Town is expected to go up by at least 20 per cent in the next couple of years and nearly double once Metro trains start plying on the Airport-New Garia Metro line that cuts across the township.

Several offices and banks are already functional in the area where the proposed parking lot will come up and several more are under construction.

Also nearby is the new campus of the Presidency College and a couple of private nursing homes.

Debashis Sen, the chairman cum managing director of Hidco, said they want to start building the parking lot in the coming few months.

“We will call for a tender soon and construction is expected to start later this year,” said Sen.

According to the plans, the parking lot will be a multi-storied structure.

The first couple of floors will have places for retail outlets as well as food and beverage joints while the upper floors will be dedicated to parking cars.

A Hidco official said they were planning to adopt the FASTag-RFID infrastructure used to collect payments at toll gates on highways.

The tags pasted on vehicle windscreens enable motorists to drive through toll plazas, without stopping to pay the tax. The amount is automatically deducted from the owner’s account.

“FASTag is vehicle-specific. Once it is affixed on a vehicle, it cannot be transferred to another vehicle,” the official said.

A mobile app will be launched that will guide vehicles towards empty parking spots including the multi-level parking lot, officials said.

Pins in green and red will denote availability or otherwise of parking lots in a particular area.

A detailed list of the number of spots available for four-wheelers and two-wheelers will also be displayed as soon as the destination is keyed in.