The Chennai Corporation has earmarked 4,258 parking slots in congested areas such as Anna Nagar, Purasawalkam and T.Nagar under the smart parking management system.
The civic body is in a scramble to begin work on many such smart city projects as the Union Government has set a deadline of February 28 for issuing ‘work orders’ for smart projects across the country.
The Union Government had already set a deadline of December 31 for tendering out smart city projects worth ₹1 lakh crore in the country, following which civic bodies such as Chennai Corporation speeded up the tender process. A review meeting by the Central government officials on smart city projects was conducted on Friday.
“Work on identifying smart parking slots will be completed shortly. The parking management system will start operation in the first week of February,” said an official.
Cameras installed
The Corporation has already installed smart cameras along roads in Anna Nagar such as Second Avenue, Third Avenue, Fourth Avenue, 11th Main Road, 15th Main Road and 18th Main Road. “We have fitted 125 cameras in Anna Nagar for the parking management system. The area will have 1,673 parking slots,” said an official.
Purasawalkam will get 385 parking slots along roads including Purasawalkam High Road. T.Nagar will get 2,200 parking slots along 19 roads such as Sivagnanam Road.
All the vehicles in these slots will be monitored in real time for the parking management system. Similarly, work on a cycle-sharing system will begin in February. “A total of 250 cycles have reached the city. We have kept them in Amma Arangam in Shenoy Nagar,” said an official.
Since the Centre launched the Smart Cities Mission in 2015, the Greater Chennai Corporation commissioned only six projects. Just 25% of the work on ₹971 crore worth Smart Cities Mission projects has been completed in the city. Installation of rooftop solar panels in 662 public buildings will also be completed by the end of February. “We have completed installing solar panels in more than 50% of the buildings,” said an official.
