By Dhanusha Gokulan  www.khaleejtimes.com
Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) smart parking application will now allow users to locate available parking spaces at The Dubai Mall, multi-storey parking buildings and certain areas on Shaikh Zayed road.
The updated version of the app, which was introduced by the RTA in September 2014, is available for download on the Android platform.
The primary aim of the update is to encourage private spaces like shopping malls and hotels to incorporate their parking facilities with the RTA app, officials said at a media roundtable conference on Wednesday. As of now, the public sector owns 125,000 parking slots in Dubai.
Over 93,000 parking transactions are carried out via the app and SMS.
The update will take effect on the iOS platform in about a week, Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan, CEO, Licensing Agency and Head of Smart App Team, said.
The Dubai Mall is the first shopping mall in Dubai to come under the app’s gamut and officials clarified that as of now, people will not have to pay to use the app to spot parking slots in the mall.
Maitha bin Adi, CEO of Dubai Traffic and Roads Corporation, clarified that the app will not give the exact location of free slots, but instead will give details of available parking spaces in different zones by method of colour-coding. Parking sensors have been installed using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems. More info
