Kathmandu Metropolitan City plans to launch digital parking services in five different places in the New Road area from next week. After the system comes in order, the metropolis says that anyone can check parking space availability in the area through their phones.

The metropolis is executing this new plan in collaboration with a private company called Wheels Truly Yours, which has already placed LED screens designating digital parking spaces at areas such as Rameshwor Sweets (in front of Bishal Bazaar), the road that leads to Indra Chowk, Dharmapath, Pako and RB Complex.  

“The service will be inaugurated next week,” said Ishwor Man Dangol, spokesperson at the metropolis.

The parking space bookings can be done via the mobile app ‘Park KTM’, which is currently going to be available only on android phones. The parking space will be monitored with GoPro cameras, and a server will be linked with the app which will give the status of the parking lot. An individual can book parking space anywhere in the five designated spaces, but vehicle owners should arrive at the booked space within 15 minutes. If they fail to do so, the app will automatically cancel the booking.

The New Road area, the Capital’s central business hub, is most notorious for parking issues. Traffic police say if the new system is implemented in an organised manner, this will help control traffic in the area. “We believe this is the best solution to control the traffic problem in New Road. We are also planning to expand this facility to Durbarmarg and other places where people have to face problems of unmanaged parking,” says Dangol.

“We had planned to implement this new technology last year, but due to technical glitches we could not implement it. For this plan to be implemented now, we have used a public private partnership model,” said Mahesh Kafle, former chief of metropolis PPP Division, who had initiated the programme on August last year.  Four IT firms had expressed their interests in developing the app for the project.

Through the ‘Park KTM’ app, 700 two-wheelers and over 200 four-wheelers can book parking spaces, according to Kafle. The ticket price for two-wheelers is Rs 60 per hour and for two-wheelers it is Rs 25. The metropolis has announced that 50 officials will be operating the overall management of the system.  

The problem of a lack of parking spaces is perennial in the metropolis. And Kathmanduties have been facing this problem for over a decade now. Dhanapati Sapkota, chief of the metropolis city police said, metropolis has been working to resolve the haphazard parking issue since 2003. Nothing substantial has been done yet.

Two years ago, marking the 23rd-anniversary of the KMC, in 2017, Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya had announced that he would resolve the parking problem of the metropolis by building a multi-storey smart parking facility in Dharmapath, in New Road. However, till date, the project has not taken any shape.