Mumbai : Planning parking lots in cities is one of the biggest challenges for builders, town planners, and end users in India, due to limited availability of space. Lack of parking space in cities can be attributed to increasing vehicle sales, increasing population, and ignoring future needs while undertaking town planning.

The market for Automated Car Parking (ACP) Systems in India is unorganized, but is fairly new and still developing. It is also a niche segment, bolstered by forecast GDP growth at 9 percent. Absence of a regulatory body to control the quality of the ACP systems, lack of skilled labor to assemble it, and high initial investment are the challenges prevailing in this space.

The main advantage of the ACP System is its eco-friendly nature (more space per car), increased safety for cars, which in due course would address parking and traffic woes in cities. However, factors such as poor after-sales services; and technical snags (such as frequent breakdowns, system failures, sensors failures, signal transfer errors, system hang-up due to erratic power cuts and voltage fluctuations) during the period of operation, limits market growth. The access and retrieval times, height and dimensional constraints, throughput rate within and around a building on nearby roads, are the factors that govern the design of a Parking System.

Indian market participants are presently importing the System, transferring the technology, or forming joint ventures with market participants of developed markets like Germany, Korea, and China. The system can be designed to accommodate minimum two cars to maximum 1,300 cars of the small car segment; and even vehicles like SUVs and MUVs. The average retrieval time for a car ranges from one minute to less than two minutes, depending on the level of automation used in the system. The cost of constructing an Equivalent Car Space (ECS) includes the cost of designing the system, the cost of structural members, mechanical drives and control system, and the installation cost, which can be squeezed into the basic model of INR 80,000 per ECS, and can be scaled to a high-end model of INR 10,00,000 per ECS. The ACP System yields a quick ROI compared to a Conventional Parking System, with inherent intangible benefits such as a safe and systematic parking system.

Looking at the numerous opportunities with the prevailing degree of fragmentation in regions, Indian and multinational companies focusing on lifts/elevators/travelators can tap the ACP System market in an organized manner. The equipment, technology, and the level of automation associated with lifts/elevators are on a platform that is similar to the ACP System.

Commenting on the ACP market, Narayanan Alagappan, Senior Research Analyst, Environment and Building Technologies Practice, Frost & Sullivan, says, “Creating a consortium of ACP System suppliers and lift/elevator manufacturers will witness synergies between them in identifying opportunity avenues, leverage on their strengths and weaknesses, plan counter measures for industry threats, and bank on their brand image in the market. The consortium can set standards and accelerate the market for the Automated Parking System in India. Turning these challenges into opportunities is a smart way to capture the market for the Automated Car Parking (ACP) System in India.”