SINGAPORE - Residents at Bukit Panjang, Changi and Yishun will get some relief from parking woes next year.

The Housing Board (HDB) has started building high-rise mechanised carparks as tall as 15 storeys at these three estates, as part of a trial to see if mechanised parking systems (MPS) are suitable for HDB estates.

Costing more than $18 million in total, mechanised carparks at these estates will add 219 parking spaces, up from 717 currently. These estates were picked because of a shortage of parking spaces and the lack of space to build new multi-storey carparks.

"The MPS is not new in Singapore: several private condos and hotels have it. But it will be new in a HDB town," wrote National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan in his blog on Sunday afternoon. He was at the Bukit Panjang HDB estate to launch the construction of a new 15-storey mechanised carpark at Bangkit Road, next to an existing multi-storey carpark.

Carpark charges will remained unchanged for the trial, said HDB. HDB residents currently pay $65 a month to park their cars at unsheltered carparks and $90 per month at sheltered ones.