MONTEGO BAY, St James — As part of a wider thrust to make Montego Bay a smart city, the St James Municipal Corporation last Thursday officially commissioned its first automated car park.

It cost the corporation approximately $4 million to make the technological upgrades needed to transform the public facility on Harbour Street into one that is expected to be a lot more efficient.

“What is here now is an automated parking system that will cut out the use of paper, like writing receipts,” explained Nicholas Thompson, a representative of Innovative Core Solutions which worked on the project.

He explained that drivers will get a card going in and, when exiting, they will scan the card to see the amount due, which they then pay to a cashier stationed in a booth at the facility. The system is expected to result in increased revenue for the corporation.

“There is no way around it where you can park and get out without paying the exact fee,” said Thompson.

Cards will be issued for individuals who wish to pay on a monthly or daily basis, as well as for those registered as guests.

Thompson said they intend to roll out additional features soon, such as licence plate readers.

Speaking during the ribbon-cutting ceremony to declare the upgraded car park ready for use, mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon explained what it means for his stated vision of a tech-forward city.

“It is these small procedural events that feed into the whole and, after a certain time, you integrate all the systems together to build a smart city,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“These are small steps, technological footprints that we are creating under our urban renewal programme; but more importantly to bring about sustainability and a better livelihood for the citizens of Montego Bay,” he added.

He pointed to work already done in moving some applications online, and the successful eradication of some illegal dump sites by installing cameras.

“We are soon to complete our smart bus stop,” Vernon said, adding that becoming a smart city is a process, not an overnight event.

The automation of the car park was done under the MoBay Striving Towards Environmental Protection & Urban Preservation (STEP UP) programme, which is aimed at enhancing environmental protection and urban public order.

According to Vernon, for several months the municipal corporation did an internal assessment to determine what they could do to modify, change, refashion to improve revenue-generation sources; car parks were seen as a good option. Ideally, he said, the Harbour Street facility would have multiple storeys.

“We really want to have multi-storey car parks in Montego Bay, not only because they generate revenue but it also manages the traffic within our city,” Vernon said.

“What you will find from time to time is that persons park illegally, which contributes to congestion… which reduces productivity; so to increase productivity, we need better car parks,” he added.

He is confident that the investment made in the Harbour City car park will pay off.

“When we have discussions at the municipal level we’re not just doing things frivolously, we look at return on investment and those types of stuff,” he told the Observer.

“We have already looked at other car parks that we are going to automate; the library car park is one of them but we wanted to start with one,” the mayor added.