Vijayawada: The parking app introduced by the city police to avail real-time information regarding the parking space availability near Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Temple received mixed response from the denizens. The Android app was released specifically with the Dasara celebrations in mind.While users who reviewed and rated the app on the Google Playstore gave good ratings, the app garnered mixed opinions from people on the ground.G Sharath, a B.Tech student, said the first problem is identifying what is the correct app while trying to download it as there are multiple entries of the app on the Playstore. There are three apps with similar names, of which one does not work, he said.Even in the working version of the app, people complained that some of the parking locations were not showing up on the map. After logging into the app by giving one’s name and phone number, it will display a list of 11 parking places and empty slots available in each parking lot. The app is supposed to show the route map to the parking place upon clicking on it but some of the parking slot locations are not showing on the map as the app tends to become unresponsive, and in some cases has even shown locations as far away as Africa - much to people’s amusement.The number of downloads was minimal when compared to the sheer number of vehicles arriving at the temple. While more than 10,000 vehicles are coming every day to the temple, less than 1,000 people have downloaded the app.A senior official from the city traffic wing on condition of anonymity told TOI that as the police have given wide publicity to the parking places through flexies and other means of publicity, people may not prefer the app. The technical glitches that some people encountered may be because of connectivity issues. Though people use smartphones, many of them are not aware of the new apps, the official said.

Stay updated with all the Latest Vijayawada headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.