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LTA does not plan to build more such complexes at the moment. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
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THE FIRST fully mechanised public carpark opened on Monday at Club Street, amid some confusion with frustrated motorists.
One motorist found his car 'misplaced' and another nearly crashed into the narrow car lift.
The $6.18 million three-storey carpark complex, which is meant to end all parking woes, was hit by glitches.
Here's how the self-parking system works: the motorist drives the car onto a platform, gets out and punches in a four-digit number on a terminal outside the car lift. The system then lifts the car to an available lot within the 'car locker'.
To retrieve the car, the motorist keys in the same number at a terminal in the waiting room, and waits for the car to appear on the designated platform.
Although motorists do not have to contend with parking woes such as sharp bends and aimless searching, the new system was bogged down with occasional glitches and long waiting times.
The retrieval of the cars should typically take 60 to 90 seconds.
When The Straits Times team visited the 142-lot carpark on Monday afternoon, there was a seven-minute wait before the car got into the car lift.
Miss Dorothy Tan, 40, who works in a German company nearby, rued: 'It was very slow and inconvenient. I had to wait for 20 minutes before I could 'park' my car. It would have been faster if I parked the car myself.'
Mr Nick Cheong, a 37-year-old interior designer, had to wait for about ten minutes to retrieve his car as the computerised system had apparently 'misplaced' his car.
'They can't find my car.' said an incredulous Mr Cheong.
He added that the lift could be 'a bit bigger too.' With the closing of the open air carpark in 2007 to facilitate the construction of the Downtown Line, the high-tech carpark was built by LTA as a temporary parking measure.
LTA does not plan to build more such complexes at the moment.
The parking rate is similar to URA's - 50 cents for every 15-minute block.
The car park is operated by G.Tech Pte Ltd.
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