This ‘Chitra Pournami,’ an online free car parking reservation system, has been launched in Tiruvannamalai.
The Superintendent of Police, along with the Assistant Superintendent of Police and a team from Arunai Engineering College, has come up with this new initiative.
R. Ponni, Superintendent of Police, Tiruvannamalai, said this was a free facility for registration of car parking space. “On a pilot basis, we have 190 parking slots in four places nearest to the Sri Arunachaleswarar temple – Pey Gopuram, Thirumanjana Gopuram, Central Bus Stand and Tiruvannamalai taluk office,” she said.
Launched on Thursday, the online reservation facility that could be accessed at – www.tvmpournami.in – received a total of 40 registrations till 9 a.m. on Friday, she added.
“This is the first time we have come up with such a facility. The aim is to make parking easier for people, who will be visiting Tiruvannamalai for ‘Chitra Pournami’. Aadhaar number is compulsory for reserving parking slot. Once they fill the required details, they can take a printout of the reservation slip and put it on the car’s windscreen. This will be verified by the police when they arrive,” she explained.
The cars can be parked in the reserved slot for five hours, she said. ‘Chitra Pournami” is from 7 a.m. on April 29 to 6.54 a.m. on April 30.
The system was developed by a four-member team of Arunai Engineering College – M. Jothish Kumar, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and three students B. Dhivesh and Amit Raj, second year, Computer Science and Engineering, and M. Kabilan, third year, Information Technology.
40 parking slots
There are 40 parking slots near Pey Gopuram, 20 near Thirumanjana Gopuram, 80 near Central Bus Stand and 50 near taluk office, Mr. Kumar said. “Users can choose the parking area based on their entry routes. Once they enter their route, the preferred place for parking will be allotted. For instance, if a user’s entry point is through the Vellore Road, the nearest parking areas would be the Central Bus Stand and taluk office,” he explained.
Once a slot was allotted, a PDF would be generated for the user, he said, adding, “This will serve as a token. They can take a printout or a screenshot on their mobile phones. The database of registrations will be with the police, who will carry out verification at the entry routes.” He added that there is scope for expanding the online system in the future.
