The Calicut Development Authority (CDA) has planned a modern parking plaza-cum-commercial complex on the Railway Station Link (Jayaprakash Narayan) Road in the city.
The proposed state-of-the-art complex will solve the car parking problems to a great extent at Railway Station Link Road, Annie Hall Road, Palayam, and Sweet Meat Street.
Situation now
As of now, vehicles are parked at space-crunched pay-and-park zones and on the side of the arterial roads.
On-side and off-side parking of vehicles on these roads usually create traffic congestions even during off-peak hours from the stretch from Palayam to Kallayi.
A parking plaza of this nature has been envisaged for the first time in the State, officials said.
Minister for Urban Affairs Manjalamkuzhi Ali will inaugurate the construction works of the multi-crore project on Saturday.
The construction will be done under Build-Operate- and-Transfer (BOT) basis.
Total cost
The total cost will come to Rs.9 crore. City-based Yennarees Infrastructures will be entrusted with the project. After 33 years, it will be handed back to the CDA, officials said.
The complex will come up in 23 cents of land in possession of the CDA.
In the first phase, it will have a basement floor, four-storeyed commercial space, as well as facilities for parking 62 cars in another seven floors.
Second phase
The total area of the commercial space will be 10,000 sqft. The second phase of the project entails parking facilities for additional 27 cars.
The fully automated and highly customised system uses a combination of mechanical devices and robotics for parking cars.
The parking or retrieving of a vehicle can be done within a few minutes. The car could be parked and identified even when during a power outage.
The idea of setting up a parking plaza has been considered several years ago. It was then decided to construct the complex on a BOT basis.
However, the proposal had to be dropped when the CDA was disbanded by the previous Left Democratic Front government and all its properties attached to the Kozhikode Corporation.
Revival of proposal
The proposal was revived after the present United Democratic Front government re-established the CDA for various reasons including developmental needs of the city and its adjoining grama panchayats.
The serving CDA chairman N.C. Aboobacker took efforts to solve the technical glitches in the project.
