Planning a fun outing at the movies? A shopping trip at the
arcades? Else family dining at your favourite restaurant?

Well,  despite the desire, what’s preventing you from pressing ahead? Of course, what else, but the dread of not finding a convenient parking place and having to circle around or idle in one’s car, till you safely squeeze into one. Precisely to help you wish your parking blues away and execute your intended itinerary to a nicety, comes Parkitekt.

Promising Parking for Everyone. By Everyone, as its pithy catchline, Parkitekt, is an Android-based phone app, developed by an enterprising group of former students of City’s R V College of Engineering. Ensuring that you Park Legal. Park Safe. Park Easy, Parkitekt, not only provides one a host of best and cheapest parking options available closest to one’s destination of choice, but also about live parking availability at restuarants, entertainment venues, business districts and other City’s ubiquitous social haunts.

While commuters can check on the availability of parking spaces in real time besides pre-booking them in advance, the app also helps owners of businesses, restaurants, stores etc to upload information of their parking spaces on the app. Parkitekt currently has a database of over 20,000 parking spaces, according to Swaroop Sagar, one of the developers of the app. 

What began as a college project for five students in 2010 was subsequently refined and revised over the years. The application was launched a week ago. Those interested can download the app from Google’s Play Store for free. Once downloaded, users can create an account with username and password to log in.

Whenever users load in information about a parking space, verification of space takes place by the team, only after which it is listed on the app.  Adarsh Kumar Mani, software engineer, who has been using the app, describes it as “very simple solution to a common problem”.  “It enables you to not only find parking spaces but identify the number of slots in such places.  That it has been integrated with a map makes it all easier for vehicle owners to pinpoint places,” he added.

The application has received more than 50 downloads since launch.

Plans are afoot to take the app to metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Pune in the next year, according to Swaroop.