5 yrs on, automated parking at Amritsar's Kairon market yet to see the light of day

Tribune News Service

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, June 8

The multi-level automated parking lots proposed under the Smart City project seems to be a distant dream as the tendering process is yet to materialise.

Senior officials of Amritsar Smart City Limited (ASCL) claimed that the case of automated parking at Kairon market has been sent to the Local Government Department for financial vetting.

As per the proposed plan, there would be a total of seven floors (two underground) at the proposed Kairon market parking. The cars would be parked automatically in the lots. The parking would facilitate several markets near Hall Bazaar and Katra Jaimal Singh.

As soon as the financial vetting completes, the tendering process will be completed in three months. — Sandeep Singh,Superintending Engineer in-charge Project Implementation Unit

The automated parking projects were announced by ASCL in 2017. ASCL had first released a tender for design, operation and maintenance for 10 years of fully automated multi-level car parking facility at Kairon market on October 2018. No vendor could fulfil the requirements of ASCL and the authorities failed to find a vendor later as well.

In 2020, the city-level technical committee revised the cost of multi-level car parking at Kairon market as steel prices were raised. Earlier, the cost of the project was Rs 18.24 crore, which had been revised to Rs 32 crore.

Superintending Engineer Sandeep Singh, in-charge Project Implementation Unit (PIU), said: “As soon as the financial vetting completes, the tendering process would be completed in three months.”

ASCL officials said there were a limited number of such multi-level automated parking lots in the country. Lack of space at Kairon market has proved to be a major hurdle in designing and implementation of the project. There are not many vendors who deal with such technology in the country.

Apart from Kairon market, ASCL also proposed a similar parking lot at Machhi Mandi. ASCL has not initiated its tendering process yet.

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