Residents of Chennai's bustling Anna Nagar area may soon find relief from the daily traffic gridlock and parking woes. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is pushing forward with an ambitious, exclusive neighborhood parking project designed to bring order to the chaotic streets.
Project Scope and Infrastructure Details
In a significant move, the GCC invited tenders on Monday to appoint a contractor for this large-scale initiative. The plan involves creating a network of 2,100 clearly marked parking bays across a 26.43-kilometer stretch of roads in Anna Nagar. The distribution will see 1,699 slots on primary roads from First to Sixth Avenue, covering 12.85 km. The remaining bays will be situated on sub-arterial secondary roads spanning from First Main Road to 17th Main Road.
The contractor will be responsible for a five-year maintenance period and will be granted enforcement powers, including the authority to tow illegally parked vehicles to a local impounding site. To support this, the project includes the procurement of two towing vehicles and 700 wheel clamps. The paid parking system will be operational for 14 hours daily, starting at 6 am.
High-Tech Surveillance and Manpower
Ensuring strict compliance is a cornerstone of the plan. The GCC has mandated the installation of a massive 1,300 surveillance cameras across the zone. For mobility, the contractor will get 15 e-bikes and 120 bicycles for supervisors and marshals to patrol the area continuously. To document any disputes and ensure transparent enforcement, 110 body cameras will also be procured.
Substantial manpower will be deployed, with around 300 staff hired for the project. This includes 230 marshals who will be stationed at intervals of every 500 meters to monitor parking in real-time.
Streamlined Enforcement and Resident Hopes
The blueprint for the Anna Nagar parking project was prepared last year by the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (Cumta) following detailed field studies on parking demand and feasibility. Cumta identified that the selected roads have fewer encroachments, presenting fewer hurdles for implementation.
Cumta member-secretary I Jeyakumar highlighted a key improvement in this plan: vesting full towing powers with the contractor for faster clearance of violations. "Traffic authorities will be kept in the loop through an app and a centralised monitoring system. Traffic police deputed for monitoring will approve towing requests on the app, after which action will be taken," he explained. The entire operation will be live-monitored from a dedicated control room. Cumta's study estimated the peak parking demand in Anna Nagar at 3,018 vehicles.
Local residents like V Sandhya emphasize that rigorous enforcement will be critical for success. "If implementation is diluted, the project will fail. The contractor should not compromise by allowing businesses to park cars without payment or tolerate road encroachments," she stated, recalling that a previous parking scheme was stalled in arbitration, leaving residents in difficulty.
