Walkways outside Infopark may no longer be out of bounds for pedestrains

Smart valet service at Infopark Kochi aims to improve parking utilization, offering convenience and efficiency to pedestrians and drivers.

Pedestrians may be able to reclaim walkways outside the Infopark Kochi campus at Kakkanad if the IT major’s move to improve the utilisation of designated parking spaces outside and inside the campus by roping in a start-up to offer smart valet service proves successful.

Vehicles parked cheek by jowl outside the Infopark Kochi campus has by now become a common sight giving the impression that there was a dearth of parking space, which the Infopark claims was not the case. Owners getting fined by the police for illegal parking has also become a common affair.

“There are enough parking slots within the campus and outside offered both by Infopark and individual companies. However, many continue to park along the roadside outside the campus simply out of convenience. In some cases, people may be rushing to attend meetings and park wherever they could find space and in some cases the allotted parking slots are away from their offices and are hence overlooked,” said Infopark sources.

The Kochi-based start-up has been providing the valet service for free on a trial basis by deploying 10 drivers across the campus for more than a week now. Infopark Kochi has allotted the start-up, Kokonet Solutions Private Limited, a parking slot of 20 vehicles for the time being. The paid service is likely to be rolled out at the start of next month.

Under the proposed smart valet service, drivers deployed by the start-up would drive the car to the allotted parking slots of the user. If the user does not have her own parking slot, it would be provided by the company along with the valet service. For valet service alone, ₹120 would be charged, and ₹190 if parking space is also provided. Besides, different packages would also be in offer for regular users.

“We have been offering a mobile application-based valet service in public facilities like hospitals by converting vacant spaces into parking lots. Our uniformed drivers pick up the vehicles and park the vehicles after which keys are dropped in a smart key box that can be opened by a designated driver alone. The customer can request return of vehicle through the app and the vehicle will be returned to the point of his or her choice,” said Pyarelal S., CEO and managing director of Kokonet Solutions.

Aneesh Panthalani, president of Progressive Techies, a collective of IT employees, said that the introduction of buggy service within the campus by Infopark had come in handy for techies in moving to and fro from the parking lot. Besides, many companies have arranged transportation facilities from additional parking space hired outside the campus.