Automated parking facility to come up in Srirangam

The Tiruchi Corporation plans to establish an automated parking facility in Srirangam, which does not have an established parking lot due to shortage of public space.

Tiruchi Corporation plans to establish an automated parking facility in Srirangam, which does not have an established parking lot due to shortage of public space.

It has been a long-pending demand for the pilgrims visiting Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple to establish dedicated parking lots in Srirangam for parking their vehicles. According to a rough estimate, Srirangam receives more than 10,000 pilgrims a day from different parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Nearly half of them visit the temple by private vehicles, including cars and vans. But there is no parking facility for them.

In the absence of an established parking lot, the pilgrims indiscriminately park their vehicles on roadsides, often leading to traffic snarls.

Even though the Corporation came out with a few proposals in the past to set up parking lots, it could not proceed further due to insufficient public space. The available sites owned by the Corporation are said to be small.

Now, the Corporation has come to the conclusion that automated parking facility is the best way to solve the issue. The decision has gained ground after the successful functioning of an automated parking facility at Courtyard by Marriott in the city.

There are three towers — each with a capacity to hold 18 cars — in the parking facility. It functions on about just 1,000 square feet. Officials are of the view that it is the best solution to set up automated parking lots in areas where public sites are small.

Corporation Commissioner R. Vaithinathan told The Hindu that the public sites available in Srirangam were small and not sufficient to construct multi-level parking lots. Hence, it had been decided to set up an automated parking facility. Officials had been asked to identify a suitable site, and the estimate of the project and other features of the facility would be known shortly.