Tirana’s City Hall will start a new innovative service enabling its citizens to park in the central area of the capital city through a simple text message to 50500, while the city is suffocating from overcharged traffic and lack of parking spaces.
The plan was unveiled today by Tirana’s Mayor Erion Veliaj at the ‘Tirana Parking’ Agency.
“Starting from this month, we will enable every citizen of Tirana to pay for a parking slot though his/her cell phone by simply sending a text message to 50500 which is accessible by all mobile operators” – said Veliaj during his presentation at Tirana Parking facilities.
The scheme would work for one hour, while drivers can renew for another hour after receiving a reminder message 10 minutes before expiry of the first hour.
Mayor Veliaj said that the use of technology for parking cars would greatly facilitate the life of citizens, avoiding physical contacts with the employees of Tirana Parking, as well as saving time for drivers.
While the move is welcomed by most of Tirana’s young drivers, doubts remain about parking capacities across central areas of Albania’s capital city Tirana.
Although the Town Hall has promised the construction of several underground parking lots across the center of Tirana, no concrete projects have yet been materialized. Last year, civil society activists protested against plans to build an underground parking underneath the ‘Rinia’ park off the main boulevard of Tirana, forcing the Town Hall to withdraw its immediate plans.
Since then, the Mayor has unveiled plans to provide the city with a central underground parking below the new ‘Scanderbeg’ square which is undergoing a total remake.
The Mayor also said that the city is working on new bus terminals and routes which will ease heavy traffic and pollution in Tirana.
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