NPCI Plans Expansion of its 100% Contactless and Interoperable Parking Solution

MUMBAI:
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) today announced the expansion of its 100% Contactless and Interoperable Parking Solution with NETC FASTag in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. As the first bank to extend this facility of collecting parking charges through FASTag at the GMR Hyderabad International Airport, ICICI Bank with NPCI, is set to roll out contactless car parking in other metros.

The unique facility of 100% Contactless and Interoperable Parking Solution with NETC FASTag is currently being implemented by 10 FASTag issuing banks at the GMR Hyderabad International Airport. NPCI expects the rest of the issuer banks to activate the contactless parking with NETC FASTag at the Hyderabad Airport in the next few weeks. NPCI is now geared-up to expand the contactless car parking facility in Mumbai and Delhi. It has also initiated discussions with major malls, airports and other private parking lots in Chennai and Bangalore for the NETC FASTag powered contactless car parking solutions. The company has been receiving interests from major banks in spearheading the parking projects.

Sudipta Roy, Head – Unsecured Assets, ICICI Bank, said, “ICICI Bank has always been at the forefront of introducing innovative technology for a world class customer experience. We are happy to partner with the GMR-managed Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to enable a FASTag powered parking management system. This is a safe, contactless and hassle-free system. It works on RFID technology that also powers digital toll collection at more than 695 toll plazas across the country. We feel that commuters using Hyderabad Outer Ring Road and now the airport parking will get a seamless experience powered by ICICI Bank FASTag.”

Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GHIAL, said, “As part of our commitment to providing a safe airport experience during Covid-19 pandemic, we are happy to announce that now passengers and visitors can avail a fully contactless car parking experience thanks to the collaboration with NPCI and NETC, which has now made our car parking fully compatible with any NETC FASTag Issuing Banks in India. We have tested first with ICICI Bank and now opening up to all the balance issuers. With this customers holding any bank NETC FASTag could zip through the airport car parking with zero-contact transactions having full control over their safe travels. While, the traditional mode of transaction with digital payment over-the-counter option will also be available, however, for more safety and contact-less experience, one could avail the NETC FASTag option at the airport car parking.”

Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, “We are going to see a good adoption of this solution across all the parking lots in the near future. We are aiming at taking this unique contactless parking proposition in metro cities keeping in mind the convenience of passengers and visitors. In this new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic situation 100% contactless payment solution is going to be the need of the hour. Our endeavour at NPCI is to provide customers across the country a safe, hassle-free and truly contactless vehicle parking experience with NETC FASTag.”

The contactless car parking facility allows passengers and visitors the comfort of paying for parking without the need to roll down their windows. While the parking lots across the country are being enabled with digital payment solutions, several models are semi- automated but not 100% contactless. This leads to an opportunity to all parking providers across the country to adopt a safe and contactless payment solutions by implementing the NETC FASTag. The NETC FASTag solution not only works in a post pay solution but also with a pre-paid mode of securing parking at any parking plaza. The parking applications can seamless integrate with the NETC FASTag API model and avail the benefit of Interoperability.

How the solution works:
This automated system entails a customer buying the NETC FASTag, which is linked to a prepaid account. The tag employs Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology and needs to be affixed on the vehicle’s windscreen after the tag account is active. The RFID Tag is mapped with NPCI by the issuer bank(s). The subscriber of this system can use the parking without any manual intervention, such as waiting for a parking receipt at the entry or making cash/credit card payment at the exit. There is no additional cost to customers with respect to the parking fee. One has to just purchase a onetime tag which does away with the wait time at entry and exit.

Dedicated NETC FASTag lanes are in place. When a user arrives through this lane, the strategically placed RFID reader will capture the tag with the timestamp and store the details in the local data base. While exiting, the same will be reconciled and the chargeable parking fee is automatically deducted allowing the passengers to virtually zip through the parking lot in no time. Post completion of every transaction, user will receive SMS on the deducted amount.