Ho Chi Minh City is exploring possibilities to invest in smart parking lots to meet growing demand for parking space, as experts and transport officials gathered at a conference in the city on Thursday to discuss the prospects.

The conference on ‘Building En-Parking Systems in Ho Chi Minh City and Southern Provinces’ was co-organized by the municipal Department of Transport and the Association of Bridges, Roads and Seaports, with the attendance of experts and officials.

An en-parking system is a cylinder-shaped glass-walled multistory module equipped with a pallet lifting system to raise and lower cars in and out of parking slots.

Experts said at the conference that each module occupying an area of 400m² can accommodate up to 120 cars, which is ten times the capacity of a similar ground parking lot.

The cost for installing one en-parking system was estimated at US$3.2 million, and the fee for an hour of parking is expected to be $1.5.

Most conference attendees agreed to the city undertaking to invest in these parking lots, praising their land-efficiency and quick investment time.

Bui Xuan Cuong, director of the transport department, said the city would mobilize investment from the private sector to quickly meet public demand.

According to Tran Van Chin, chairman of the Management Board of VMC JSC, his company has conducted research to build these smart parking lots at 23/9 Park, Lam Son Square, and Le Van Tam Park in District 1.

The city plans to construct a total of 17 bus garages, 15 taxi parking lots, and 42 car parking lots covering a total area of 520 hectares in the coming years, according to Ngo Hai Duong, head of the municipal Division of Infrastructure Management and Operation.

Ninety-five high-rises in the downtown area currently have from one to five stories reserved for parking with the total area of over 570m², Duong said, adding their capacity still fails to meet the real need.

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