The Land Transport Authority's (LTA) parking guidance system will list the number of available lots in all major buildings in the area.

It is expected to cut down on the time drivers spend circling the area looking for parking.

This, in turn, should reduce traffic in the vicinity.

The LTA has started testing eight electronic panels in the Marina Centre area, including those located in front of Raffles City, Suntec City and along Nicoll Highway.

They will start operating on April 15.

The system will eventually be rolled out in other busy or built-up parts of Singapore, for example, around the Sentosa-HarbourFront area.

In Marina Centre, the panels will list available lots in Suntec City, Marina Square, Millenia Singapore, The Esplanade and Raffles City.

Although similar systems are increasingly common in carparks in commercial buildings, this is the first time a parking guidance system will be used on public roads here.

Roadside parking guidance systems are used fairly widely in Europe and North America.

The overseas systems usually come with directional arrows, so drivers who are unfamiliar with the area get a sense of where the buildings listed are.

Besides parking information, the LTA's panels can be used to provide traffic advisories as well - like the expressway signboards.

The vendor for the maiden system is home-grown Wei Long Electronics Engineering, a 10-year-old company specialising in cashless parking systems.

It beat four other bidders to supply the system for around $700,000.

LTA chief executive Yam Ah Mee said: 'We hope that the parking guidance system would help reduce the amount of circulating traffic, which will, in turn, lead to a more efficient use of our roads.'