Bengaluru: App for locating parking spots in city

A new mobile app allows users to find parking spots in Bengaluru. Metrolife tried the Namm Parkiing app on Tuesday and Wednesday, visiting eight sites to see how it works.

The app showed parking spots only upon reaching the destination, not at the start of the trip. Our first stop was a mall on Magadi Road. After entering the mall’s name into the app, a purple pin appeared on Google Maps, indicating paid parking was available inside. A pop-up notification asked if we had reached the destination. On confirming, it prompted us to make a voluntary donation of Rs 10-Rs 15. At Magadi metro station, the app yielded no results but asked whether we had found a parking space or not. Unsure of the next step, we exited the app. At a theatre off Magadi Main Road, we couldn’t find the theatre’s location on the app. At Vijayanagar metro station and on Church Street, the app pointed to a spot eight minutes away, then added nine more as we neared. At the Nagarbhavi BDA Complex, a red pin on the app led us to a free parking space.

Its founder Nitin Prabhakar says the app is designed to provide information about parking spaces at a given location and suggest nearby alternatives if none are available on-site. It currently lists about 25,000 car parking spots and 35,000 bike spots across the city. Of these, around 800, combined for cars and bikes, are on the brand’s private properties. Approximately 20% of the total spots are free, 70% are paid, and 10% offer discounted rates (available through the app). Parking spots are colour-coded: red for free, purple for paid, orange for discounted, and grey for unavailable.

It does not provide live updates on whether spots within a parking facility are available. Prabhakar says real-time tracking is hardware-intensive and has failed in the past, so they chose not to integrate the feature.

It was launched in March and has a little over 6,000 users.

Available on Android and iOS.