Guwahati, Sept. 20: The first government-sponsored multi-level automated parking facility in the Northeast will soon be thrown open to the public here.

The parking facility has been set up in front of the Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden and has been constructed by the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), with financial assistance from the Centre.

It has the capacity to hold 302 four-wheelers and comprises five levels.

A GMDA official said work on the parking facility started from December 2014, during the erstwhile Tarun Gogoi government, at a cost of Rs 11 crore.

'It will be the first multi-level automated parking facility in the Northeast. It will reduce the parking problem and traffic congestion in the busy Zoo Road. A similar parking facility is under construction at Panbazar and will open later this year. The two facilities will operate through the switch-and-gear system,' the official said.

The Panbazar facility is set up on a one- bigha plot at a cost of Rs 14.33 crore provided by the DoNER ministry. It will have a capacity of 250 four wheelers.

The GMDA has engaged Ram Ratna Infrastructure Private Ltd to construct the facility near Zoo Road and Simplex Project Ltd for the place at Panbazar.

'We have planned to set up at least four more parking facilities here as part of the smart city project. These projects will also start soon,' the deputy commissioner of Kamrup (metro), M. Angamuthu, told The Telegraph.

Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal was scheduled to inaugurate the parking facility at Zoo Road today but the ceremony had to be postponed.

Angamuthu said the facility will be opened to the public as soon as possible.