Chandigarh, Feb. 11 -- The recently launched unified parking pass system in Chandigarh has drawn criticism from Member of Parliament (MP) Manish Tewari, who questioned the city's technological preparedness while stating that the project has fallen short of its original promise of being FASTag-enabled. In response to his question in the Lok Sabha regarding the implementation of the smart parking project launched in 2022, the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) replied that the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) has implemented the single parkingpass system - MC One Pass - across all MC-run paid parking lots. The initiative launched on January 27 allows motorists to avail monthly parking passes at affordable rates of Rs.250 for two-wheelers and Rs.500 for four-wheelers, thus doing away with the hassle of making cash payments every time they park. The Ministry further said the initiative introduced digital payments, electronic receipts, real-time monitoring and centralised dashboard-based reporting to improve transparency and efficiency. It also said that paid parking operations in Chandigarh have generated Rs.22.43 crore since July 2024, with net revenue standing at Rs.10.21 crore after operational expenses. Tewari termed the reply "perplexing," and stated that the city's IT capacity appears inadequate. He said that a FASTag-enabled cashless parking system, originally proposed as part of the modernisation plan for the 89 MC-run lots, could not be implemented even four years after the project was conceived in August 2022. "The Chandigarh MC had instead adopted the MC One Pass system, which still relies on manual scanning of vehicle number plates to validate parking passes. The world is moving towards transformative artificial intelligence, but Chandigarh's IT capacity remains so inadequate that even a rudimentary FASTag-enabled cashless system could not be implemented," Tewarisaid. He further pointed out that FASTag technology has been operational on National Highways since 2010 and is widely used in several government facilities across the country....