The FINANCIAL — Up to 6 thousand cars from the total of 350,000 that park each day in Tbilisi, park in CT Park parking places. The number of parking fines reaches 200 daily. Payment for parking is available by special cards, mobile phones and special pay boxes. The company will offer online payment soon too.
The prices for parking are defined by the Municipality of Tbilisi according to the streets and zones. The average cost of parking per hour is GEL 0.50 (~30 cents). Parking at 70% of the territory controlled by CT park costs GEL 0.20 an hour, 22% – GEL 0.50 and only 8% – GEL 1,” Giorgi Japaridze, Marketing and PR manager of CT Park, told The FINANCIAL.
The Municipality states that the highest parking prices are generally for territory which is used for commercial unloading. These include the places in front of cafes, restaurants and casinos.
All citizens of Tbilisi have to pay to park their cars now, no matter whether it is near their working places or not. The permit benefits for citizens are clear, in particular those who have got a permit to park in front of their residences.
“We will soon offer our customers payment for coupons by internet. We will also install pay boxes in order to simplify the service for our customers. We are not cooperating with the companies who are directly connected with the automobile industry and we do not offer them any discounts,” he says.
“Customers are most often fined for parking their cars in prohibited places. The fine for that is GEL 10. While for disregarding their parking rights and leaving a car parked on the pavement the fine is GEL 40 and for parking a car without payment the fine is GEL 20,” Giorgi Japaridze, Marketing and PR Manager of CT Park, told The FINANCIAL.
CT Park was established as a subsidiary of international companies specialized in the field of Urban Parking. The exclusive right to organize and manage the parking sphere in Tbilisi was bestowed to CT Park following winning the Auction (November the 9th, 2007) organized by the Municipality of Tbilisi, which was arranged due to the increasing need to solve the arising traffic problems in the large capital city Tbilisi. CT Park provides its services in accordance with the Administrative Code of Tbilisi Municipality.
“Currently CT Park occupies around 10,000 parking places. If need arises we will add some more. If the transport department of the Municipality sees fit to add more costly parking stations then they will give us instructions to do so and we will start work on it. According to the agreement CT-Park will control as much space as is stated by Tbilisi Municipality,” Japaridze says.
“We cannot offer any discounts for the people who work inside casinos or restaurants, where the hourly price for parking is GEL 1. The problem should be solved by their establishment’s owners. It is their responsibility to reach an agreement with the relevant authorities about territory for the parking of their staff’s cars. At present we cannot offer them any privileges if the municipality does not themselves provide any privileges for them. Customers have applied to us to solve this problem. We doubt that in the near future any changes will occur regarding this issue,” he says.
Japaridze explains that the vehicles which stop on the property of distribution companies and need to stop for no longer than 5 minutes on average at a time are not required to buy a parking ticket.
“According to internationally accepted traffic rules parking is the moment when a driver stops his car for more than five minutes. The corporate cars of distribution companies stop their cars for no more than several minutes, deliver or pick-up products then move on. Accordingly they do not need to pay a parking fee.”
Customers can by CT Park cards in the chain shops of Populi, at the petrol stations of Rompetrol and from press boxes.
“If you are parking your car for just a couple of minutes then using mobile payment is cheaper than paying in cash to the attendants looking after the parking areas,” Japaridze declares.
“We will soon offer our customers payment by coupons on the internet. We will also install pay boxes in order to simplify service for our customers. We are not cooperating with the companies who are directly connected with the automobile business and are not offering them any discounts,” he says.
Japaridze notes that underground parking places are for commercial business and the prerogatives of construction companies. CT Park has a different working scheme. “Abroad this is a much approved method and also very profitable. So we presume that other companies will become interested in it in the future,” he notes.
Written By Madona Gasanova
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