Dubai: The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) on Sunday launched the mParking service enabling motorists pay parking fees of their vehicles by simply sending an SMS.
The service was launched in some areas including Shaikh Zayed Road, Dubai Media City and Internet City while it will be available in Bur Dubai in August and in Deira by October this year.
As reported by Gulf News last week, the aim of the mPark service is to provide more options to motorists. Currently, parking fee can be paid by using coins and parking cards.
The best thing about the system is that a person can extend the parking time from anywhere if he is unable to go to his vehicle before his purchased parking time expires. The customer will be charged 30 fils for the SMS in addition to the parking fee. For example if a parking fee is Dh2, a mParking user will be charged Dh2.30.
Owner of the vehicles registered in Dubai can use the service without any hassle by simply sending an SMS including the vehicle number, zone number and the duration for parking.
However, owner of vehicles registered outside Dubai need to first register on the given website to get a user number to able to pay parking fee using their mobile phones. The owner must have etisalat mobile number.
The system is easy to use. A user has to check the parking zone code written on the boards in every parking zone. Then send an SMS to the number 7275 (corresponding to the word PARK) including vehicle number plate, parking zone code, and the required parking period.
The control room will send an SMS confirming the payment and automatically transmit the number plate of the vehicle to the parking warden stating that the parking fee chargeable to a particular vehicle has been paid. The electronic system will not allow the parking warden to issue fine to a vehicle if the payment is done through mobile phone.
Engineer Maitha Obaid Bin Udai, Chief Executive Officer of the RTA's Traffic and Roads Agency said: "The mParking service launched by the RTA in cooperation with etisalat is the first of its kind in the UAE. It aims at easing the use of public parking for Dubai residents and visitors." For registration and more details visit www.mpark.rta.ae.
Your comments
It's really an appericiable step by RTA.Thanks for the facilities provided by RTA.
Ishteyaque Ahmad
Patna,India
Posted: May 04, 2009, 16:48
Outstanding! A good move by RTA. This will really help people who visits medical centre, hospitals, govt offices, etc where they forget most often to recharge the ticket
Vijay
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 15:51
Congratulations RTA. Good work and thank you. But please do try and implement the same with Salik.
Mansour Mohammad
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 15:40
Hats off RTA for providing for the Service. Please consider Salik too.
Preveen
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 15:20
What do we display on the dashboard if we top up via SMSes. How to convince the cop that I have done it. Will he wait till I come back to my car?
Venkat
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 14:39
An excellent attempt. Should it followed with Salik top up soon?
Shaheen Sheikh
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 14:19
RTA has come up with a good solution for payment of parking fees by introducing mParking service. This system will help motorists evade parking fines and make payment of parking fees easier. It is a good alternative especially when motorists need to extend their parking time. This system must be implemented all over Dubai and Sharjah too.
Naina Nair
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 14:17
again the question is, what if someone is parked and has not paid? how will we know? if inspectors are there how will they check who has SMSd and who has not? and if an inspector ask us what proof we have that we have paid via SMS? how will check and balance system work on this?
Bilal
dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 13:47
I have just used the service and its excellent. You send the message in the pre-defined format to 7275 and you receive the confirmation message via SMS with all the details and most important of all when the parking time expires. Also received the reminder approx 10mins before my ticket expiry and sent 'Y' to 7275 and it extended the ticket by sending another confirmation message with the updated expiry time. This is great no need to go down to the machine anymore. Incidently there was a parking inspector around and I asked him how does he verify that I have paid as there is no ticket displayed inside my car dashboard. He was kind enough to show me my car details with ticket expiry on his handheld.Great work RTA.
Hatari
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 13:06
Answer to Mr. Dennis Tawah
The control room will send an SMS confirming the payment and automatically transmit the number plate of the vehicle to the parking warden stating that the parking fee chargeable to a particular vehicle has been paid. The electronic system will not allow the parking warden to issue fine to a vehicle if the payment is done through mobile phone
Razvi
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:56
This is the very good decision some time people do not have coins, it is very useful for all drivers, i appreciate RTA for this decision.
Abdu Thumbath
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:44
why do Du suscribers always have to suffer?
Pankaj
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:43
Question here, why cant they do this for Salik? I find it inconvenient to top up by filling a small cutout and do everything manually at a pump station every time!
Dany
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:41
Oh Man, I always wanted a service like that, because most of the time i don't find coins for the ticket, Through SMS i can always pay anytime, 30fils should not bother us because of the great service the RTA is providing. Thank you RTA.
Jahan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:36
Great work done by RTA as always. This is a good step using technology. It was a headache before to go outside to put a new ticket after every hour specially when you are in a que of a counter. Great innovation.
Danish Jafri
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:26
An excellent initiative. A text-book example of how technology can be leveraged to make life easier for everyday tasks.
Abdulelah Dandachi
Doha,Qatar
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:25
Excellent job by RTA.
Kush
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:19
A couple of times i have ran around from whatever i was doing to extend the time!! 30fils is better than wasting time running around and panicking. A good move from RTA! Cool one but now what if i ran out of credit?
Shaikh
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:16
once the ticket is paid via sms what do we use as a proof in order to avoid the mobile RTA inspectors from putting a fine ticket since there is no receipt to display on the windscreen.
Dennis Tawah
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 11:40
This is i think the best thing that the RTA had done so far and also seems very resonable.
Jacob
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 11:37
It's a great initiative which RTA has taken in making the life easier for the motorist. The additional transaction fee of 30fils is fine with me. At least I will receive reminders to extend and will save on the parking fine if I overstayed without paying. Thanks to RTA and the people behind it.
Hatari
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 04, 2009, 10:41
