Multilevel automated parking is yet to gain the momentum in the urban areas of our country.
N V Ramana, Director, Marine Car Parx
What are the latest developments in vehicle parking in India?
Discussions are initiated with concerned government departments to promulgate a policy on the mandatory requirement of parking place prior to purchase of a vehicle by the urban citizen. The stakeholders to deliberate are municipal corporations, urban development departments, vehicle registration authorities, police traffic department, resident welfare associations, real estate developers, car sales dealers, corporate schools, hospitals, business houses, etc. The prime objective of the deliberations is to prevent permanent parking of vehicles and reduce their encroachment on the road pavement/footpaths and in the by lanes. Multilevel parking infrastructure has an additional role to play in the transition era of vehicle fuels from diesel driven to electric batteries powered. The parking facility requires to integrate EV charging points and also harness solar energy by providing PV panels on the rooftop/canopy over the site area as suitable in order to make the facility complex comprehensively green.
What are the space saving concepts in vehicle parking? What are the various parking systems offered by the company?
Space saving is accomplished by lifting the vehicles vertically and arranging them in rows and columns. This process could be performed within the building enclosure or in the open areas of the housing premises. This activity eliminates the provision of ramps and drive ways in each floor. Marine Car Parx has been evolved from the internationally practised and time-tested technology of various cargoes in the maritime sector, which is suitably conceptualized to meet the needs of car parking in urban India. This is the only patent certified system made in India. Our space saving concept has multiple advantages over the other prevailing concepts:
· Creates vertical spaces above the allocated ground surface up to G+4 levels.
· Saves investment cost of construction facility by 50%
· Saves time to install and commission by 50%
· Reduces carbon footprint – Our structures are relocatable and no permanent building required.
· Highly flexible in design and layout to suit the site profile. Process operation redundancy - 100%. Scalable up to 10 times in a large facility. This is also due to high investment costs and other set-back factors are as mentioned earlier.
Our company offers vertical parking facilities with solar rooftop and EV charging points optionally.
How is automated car parking system gaining traction in the country?
Multilevel automated parking is yet to gain the momentum in the urban areas of our country mainly due to inertia (resistance to change) in the mindset of the urban society.
Occupying the public road spaces/pavements is the easy way out solution at present for the urban citizen until a parking policy is enforced upon.
The concerned government departments such as police, traffic, municipal corporations and car registration authorities, should re-visit the citizen’s charter with regards to car parking and car owning policy in the urban areas.
Car dealers/sellers of pre-owned cars, housing developers, corporate schools, hospitals, business houses, etc should come forward to owning and promoting MLCP facilities so that their business activities don’t choke the road traffic periodically every day. The resistance is also due to high investment costs and other process set-back factors are as mentioned earlier.
What are the key infrastructure challenges in urban parking?
Availability of suitable land in the public and private domains of the dense urban areas is the primary challenge. Concerned government departments should come forward with attractive proposals to invite private entrepreneurs to encourage setting up facilities in large numbers. Lands in the private sector can be encouraged for shared use of the parking facilities for the benefit of multiple neighbourhood organizations and more profitable returns on investment.
How is the company offering safe and sustainable solutions in vehicle parking?
Marine Car Parx systems are manufactured and tested conforming to the Indian industrial standards and fire safety norms. Being semi-automatic and valet personnel operated, our facilities have an advantage to scale up the parking operations to meet the surge demands in parking requirements. For example, our designs consist 10 to 12 car lifts in a facility of 500 car capacity system which can be pressed into parallel operations as necessary for saving time in the rush hours and ensure reliable 24/7 operations.
What is your current market presence and how are you planning to expand your business?
We have signed up a long-term contract with UP Government to provide large parking facilities in various smart cities in that state. Some proposals are also in the pipeline with the government and private sectors in Hyderabad. We are glad to share a few designs of our recent project proposals.
