A parking attendant outside Lake Market was still collecting cash for car parking fees on Monday because, he said, he needed more training to accept digital payments.
The information available on the mobile app ‘s-Parking’ — that is supposed to tell users about vacant parking slots — did not match the ground reality on Russell Street and opposite The Oberoi Grand.
The attendants complained that poor Internet connectivity came in the way of using the machines.
The use of point of sales (POS) machines to collect digital payments of car parking fees has hardly taken off in the city.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation launched the collection of payments through the machines — as an attempt to stop overcharging — on January 18. It was promised that occupants of cars would be given receipts during entry and exit with the amount to be paid.
The Telegraph visited some stretches on Friday and found the old system of collecting cash was continuing. In the same places on Monday, very little had changed. On Tuesday, parking attendants had started using machines on Kavi Bharati Sarani.
Incorrect app info
The app ‘s-Parking’, also launched on January 18, showed there were 51 booked slots and 109 free slots at 3.45pm on Russell Street on Monday.
But on arriving there, one could not find any space. Both sides of the road were occupied. In some places, cars were parked outside the demarcated slots. Many cars were turned away by attendants for want of space.
“We do not know why the app is showing there are so many vacant slots,” said one attendant.
During the launch, KMC officials said car owners could go to the app and see the nearest location with vacancies for car parking.
A POS machine shows network error messages opposite The Oberoi Grand on Monday evening
Poor Internet
None of the three machines allocated for the parking bay opposite Oberoi Grand was being used on Monday afternoon. An attendant said the Internet speed was so poor that they preferred taking cash payments.
“Internet connection is very erratic. Car owners want to leave and not wait. The machine worked well on Saturday but fared miserably on Sunday and Monday,” said an attendant.
Poor training
On Kavi Bharati Sarani near Lake Market, a parking attendant said he had started using the machine on Tuesday.
He had received the machine earlier but on Monday he said: “I need more training. I have asked my agency to provide more training. They have promised to do so.”
The parking attendants were unaware of an option that allowed a person who was not in the car to pay the parking fee remotely.
A KMC official had said in case the occupants in a car were not carrying debit or credit cards and did not know how to make UPI payments, they could provide someone else’s phone number.
A text message along with a payment link is supposed to go to that phone number. Parking attendants on Russell Street and Kavi Bharati Sarani said they were not taught about this option.
A KMC official said on Friday that digital payment was working only on a handful of the 61 stretches where its implementation was promised.
“We are working on the problems,” said the official.
