Presented a paper on "Automated Parking Facilities as one of the Possible Solutions to the City Transport System" at the Workshop on "Possible Solutions to the City Transport System Including Pedestrian Segregation & Automated Parking Facilities" organised by Indian Road Congress & Highways Department, Govt of Tamilnadu on 26th April, 2013

1. Proceedings of the Indian Road Congress-One Day Workshop-cum-Seminar on “Possible Solutions to the City Transport
System including Pedestrians Segregation & Automated Parking Facilities” on 26th
April, 2013, Chennai.
Automated Parking Facilities as one of the
Possible Solutions to the City Transport
System
Sanjog Bawane, Head-Public Private Partnership Projects, CCCL Infrastructure Limited, Chennai,
Tamil Nadu, India.
Email:sanjoginfra@ccclindia.com, Mb: +91 9884008057
Abstract- Due to the proliferation in the number of vehicles
on the road, traffic problems are bound to exist. This is due
to the fact that the current transportation infrastructure
and car park facility developed are unable to cope with the
influx of vehicles on the road. In India, the situation is made
worse by the fact that the roads are significantly narrower
compared to the West. Therefore, problems such as traffic
congestion and insufficient parking space inevitably crops
up. Various measures have been taken in the attempt to
overcome the traffic problems. To alleviate the
aforementioned problems, the automated car parking
system has been developed. This paper introduces various
automated car parking systems and highlights the approach
of various stakeholders, planning and formulation issues
and puts forward a viewpoint on the same.
I. INTRODUCTION
India’s urban population is rapidly expanding as an
increasing number of small town dwellers are migrating
to cities. Rising income levels mean that even for the
middle income Indian, owning a car is not as unthinkable
as it was a decade ago.
Statistics reveal that parking space requirement has out
stripped the number of vehicles by 45%, on an average,
across metros. Conventional on-ground parking
arrangements alone are no longer sufficient to handle
such massive parking requirements. The challenge for
urban planners is to allocate parking spaces for the rising
car population. In high activity areas, it is difficult to find
parking spaces, resulting in problems such as on-street
parking, thereby congesting the already congested roads.
II. AUTOMATED PARKING-AN OPTION
Automatic car parking helps tackle these problems to a
great extent. It is a space efficient concept that saves at
least 33% of parking space as compared to conventional
ramp based multilevel parking thereby having the
potential to make huge difference in urban & transport
planning. It is a space efficient, secure and
environmentally sound solution for both present and
future parking needs.
III. AUTOMATED PARKING SYSTEMS
How does it work?
The process of parking is simple and does not require
human interference. The car is parked in a car lift at the
entrance to the parking area. It is then automatically
moved through the facility and stored in the parking slot.
This is carried out through a parking management
mechanism which directs controls of the parking system
comprising of pallet/pallet-less technology, robots and
lifts. Retrieval is carried out in the same manner, using
the parking management system, and this process is fast.
Trolley Parking:
This system operates by a vertical lift running from
vehicle entrance level to each parking level, and
independently working trolley. Flexible arrangement of
entrance is possible due to combining a vertical lift and a
horizontal trolley. This type can efficiently cope with
plans of utilizing underground space as well as moving
lines of vehicles.
Fig. 1-Trolley Parking
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2. Proceedings of the Indian Road Congress-One Day Workshop-cum-Seminar on “Possible Solutions to the City Transport
System including Pedestrians Segregation & Automated Parking Facilities” on 26th
April, 2013, Chennai.
Fig. 2-Trolley Parking
Translator Parking:
Translator simultaneously operates vertically and
horizontally to move vehicles in and out on all levels just
like an automated storage. By arranging the location of
entrance and exit flexibly, utilizing the underground space
and moving lines of vehicle flow is easily managed.
Fig. 3-Translator Parking
Fig.4-Translator Parking
Elevator Parking:
An elevator located in the center of the tower for a
vehicle, moves vehicles vertically as well as horizontally.
Applying the latest elevator system, this can reach the
express running speed, while providing low-noise, low
vibration operating mechanism.
Fig. 5-Elevator Parking
Fig. 6-Elevator Parking
IV. SEMI-AUTOMATED PARKING SYSTEMS
For the lesser parking slots, Semi-Automatic Parking
Systems are the viable solution. These are even referred
as Mechanical Parking systems mainly working on
Chain-Pulley or Hydraulic mechanism. These are
modular in nature and have multiple entry points. Puzzle
Parking is the most widely used one.
Puzzle Parking:
Upper and lower pallets repeatedly move vertically and
horizontally to move vehicles in and out. Depending on
site condition, continuous installations of units are
possible with simple installation.
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3. Proceedings of the Indian Road Congress-One Day Workshop-cum-Seminar on “Possible Solutions to the City Transport
System including Pedestrians Segregation & Automated Parking Facilities” on 26th
April, 2013, Chennai.
Fig. 7-Puzzle Parking
Fig. 8-Puzzle Parking
V. SUITABILITY OF AUTOMATED/SEMI
AUTOMATED PARKING SYSTEMS
Parking planning concepts mainly revolve around parking
density, frequency of parking cycles at a given location
and the location. Semiautomatic system as a whole is
though cheaper than Fully Automated systems but it is
not as effective as the later when it comes to handling
higher frequency of parking cycles. Within the
Automated parking system domain, Trolley and translator
systems are equally efficient when it comes to handling
high parking density and high frequency of parking
cycles. Trolley system has a slightly upper edge over
translator system from structural design point of view.
Both are safe but translator system may require few
additional structural elements. Though translator system
losses to trolley system on construction cost but it gains
over trolley system on equipment cost.
Fully Automated parking, from functional point of view,
is best suited for public places (CBD’s, Railway Stations
and Airports, to name a few). Semi-Automated systems
solve the purpose when it comes to catering individual
premises (parking for employees within the office
premises, Residential complexes).
VI. APPROACH OF STAKEHOLDERS
Various stakeholders like Planning Authorities, Urban
Local Bodies (ULB’s) and Real Estate Developers has
initiated Automated Parking projects.
Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in its Master Plan
2021 has even introduced the norms for Automated
Parking systems and its financial viability through PPP
route by offering utilisation of commercial space above
the parking structure. It has even identified locations for
the same. Such initiatives enables the ULB’s to fast track
the Parking Proposals.
ULB’s too have initiated lot of Automated Parking
Projects mostly on PPP route. Office buildings and high-
end housing complexes too are keeping an option open
for Semi-Automatic Parking systems.
Most of the projects initiated by Public Agencies are
through PPP route.
VII. ISSUES
It is well understood that Standalone Automated Parking
Systems are not financially viable option due its high cost
and restriction on Parking Charges. Further, parking
requirement will always be in an area which has high
commercial value. This provokes the public agencies to
look at such projects through PPP route. But the fact is
that not many projects, initiated on PPP route, has been
implemented, or for that matter, even awarded mainly due
to following reasons:
1. Though the location on which such projects are
proposed are of high commercial value from
that particular city’s point of view, but the
commercial rentals in that area may not be
enough to fetch good returns to the Project
developer. Over and above this, the project
proponents insist on Premium on the project to
be paid to them, which in turn forms the bid
criteria. It is therefore that the developers are
not inclined to participate in such tenders and
hence the projects don’t come up.
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4. Proceedings of the Indian Road Congress-One Day Workshop-cum-Seminar on “Possible Solutions to the City Transport
System including Pedestrians Segregation & Automated Parking Facilities” on 26th
April, 2013, Chennai.
2. Locations (particularly CBD’s), that needs
parking facility, do not have land and even if it
has, it’s a park or green space. Resulting in
PIL’s and such projects get tangled in legal
battles.
3. Off late lot of projects were proposed on bus
terminus. Such projects, even though in
commercially high rental localities, could not
come up. Reason being, the ground floor in such
cases are required for bus circulations and the
rentals from 1st
floor onwards is half of that
from ground floor, thus affecting the financial
viability.
VIII. CONCLUSION
Public agencies though have identified parking facilities
as one of the issues to be sorted out but the approach is
not reaping the desired results.
Public parking facility is required to be seen from a city
perspective as a whole and not as a single facility at one
location. Projects need to be taken up simultaneously at
different locations. It has to be understood that
Automated Parking is one of the options to tackle the
problem, though it is very efficient, but it comes with a
high price tag. Hence, look at different options of parking
facility as well. Considering the following approach will
help the public agencies to review their parking solution
in an integrated manner:
1. In depth assessment of locations, so as to decide
on which projects should be implemented on
PPP (Premium) or PPP (Concession Period
Criteria) or EPC. Cross subsidise such projects
within the parking projects.
Double entry accrual based system of accounting
in ULB’s will ease the process of this cross
subsidisation.
2. Consider other options of parking as well like
conventional and Semi Automatic parking
facilities at different locations so as to reduce the
financing burden on the public agencies and
thereby making the cross subsidisation model a
reality.
3. One facility should not be provided at the cost of
other. Green areas should be strictly maintained
as green. In such places, even if conventional
underground parking is proposed, the project
becomes unviable if taken through PPP route.
4. Proper traffic circulation planning around the
parking facility within the parking site should be
given utmost importance. A service road for
entry and exit of the parking facility will not
create a bottleneck in already congested
adjoining main road.
5. Advanced construction methodologies like
“Top-Down Construction Method” for
underground parking will enable above ground
construction and underground construction to
happen simultaneously thus reducing substantial
construction time. Also, “Pre-fab Construction”
for above ground parking systems will cut down
on construction time to a great extent and also
ease congestion due to construction activities.
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