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Parking fee payment through SMS shortly

DUBAI — Drivers will soon be able to use the SMS to pay the parking fee, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced yesterday.

Engineer Maitha bin Adai, CEO of the Traffic and Roads Agency, said that at present the system is in an experimental stage.

“The service has been launched in association with Emirates Telecommunication Company (Etisalat) and is known as ‘mParking’.

Through this system, users can pay the parking fees through mobile phone subscriptions,” she explained.

“The service is not open to the public as yet, but soon a phone number will be announced where people can send the SMS,” she explained.

Explaining the procedure, Maitha said that an SMS has to be sent to a certain number quoting the number plate of the vehicle, zone code, and number of parking hours. “The subscriber will receive an SMS confirming payment has been made so as to park the vehicle up to the specified time. When the specified parking time requested by service applicant is about to expire, he (or she) will receive another reminder SMS advising that the specified parking time is about to expire. Should the user be interested in extending the parking time to more than one hour, he (or she) could send another SMS stating the number of parking hours to be added. If the user is interested in additional parking time for only one hour, he (or she) could send an SMS inserting the asterisk sign (*) and one further parking hour will instantly be added to the parking time.

Meanwhile, the RTA is ready to launch the Phase-8 of Public Parking Control Project in Dubai very shortly.

“This phase is among the biggest projects of controlling car parks and it consists of three key stages to be completed at a cost of around Dh42 million,” said Maitha.

The first stage includes installation of 578 Parking Control Machines in public car parks covering several areas in Dubai, including Al Garhoud, Damascus Road between Al Qusais first and second Industrial Area, Al Nahda Road, Al Mina Road, Al Mankhool Road, Al Hamriya area up to Al Mussallah Road, Al Karama area between Khalifa and Zaíabeel Roads, Oud Maitha area, Shaikh Zayed Road towards Al Quoz 1, Al Muraqabat between Al Riqqa and Al Muraqqabat Roads near Dubai Central Laboratory, Al Hudhaiba area, Al Kuwait Road, and Al Rasheed Road.

She said the second stage involves upgrading the existing 1,600 old-type Parking Control Machines as well as installing 650 modern parking machines.

“Upgrading of old machines covers fitting them with power-saving systems, fitting internal memories, and modernising transceiver systems to enable them cater tor multiple types of e-payment cards,” she explained.

Maitha said the stage three address development of a central system of parking machines where the previously applicable communication technology will be replaced by GPRS technology, along with fitting the machines with adding new configurations in order to upgrade the levels of parking services in Dubai to the highest technical and technological standards.

She said that according to the schedule, installation of parking control machines will be completed in two phases. During the first stage, 350 machines will be installed before the end of 2007. In the second stage, 228 machines will be installed and the work is expected to be completed by April 2008.

Maitha also said that the number of parking controllers monitoring car parks currently exceeded 550. “More than 80 per cent of them are UAE nationals,” she said.

“Adopting new technologies, however, does not abolish the role of controllers, who play an effective role in streamlining traffic at car parks, preventing violations, and attending to some instant problems arising from time to time,” she remarked.