Forbidden parking idea

I had been to Beijing a couple of months back. As the capital of the country that attracts the highest FDI in the world, it is impeccable with wide roads , a good mix of the old and new and amazing cleanliness. You do find beggars and rag pickers as a redeeming feature for the desi who wants to hype the negative and play down the difference between Beijing and Delhi.

Forbidden City was a let down by tourist standards since most of the monuments seemed similar within the city. Tianeman Square was imposing and seemed to have a sense of history even on a normal dull afternoon. Every city with a history needs such a central fulcrum and just a normal glance at this Square can conjure up images of crowds, strikes, marching soldiers and fiery speeches. Of course the forbidden incident just takes away some appreciation but an imposing structure nonetheless.

Coming back to the idea, look at the picture. Its simply a parking lot lock of sorts. If you own the parking slot, you can unlock this and the upper bar will come down, helping you to park at your designated slot. If your trying to hadap someones slot of course, you will damage your car. Simple concept, great execution, no RFID, geo-tagging, sensors and all that shabang.

The place where it would be useful is in corporate offices with limited parking slots. Herein the security guard plays the villain, by saying to the yuppie who has splurged his bonus on a new Swift: 'saab idhar parking nahi karneka, yeh bade saab ka slot hai, bahar park karo' reminding him , his exact place in the corporate hierarchy and pecking order in the food chain. And when he parks outside, his new Swift becomes a collectible for pigeon shit and paan stains.

Most old apartment blocks in India also have a huge parking problem. The space where youngsters used to practise their Tendlyagiri are all lost to the burgoening number of cars. Forget stilt, people might even try tilt parking to get that extra foot to park in the safety in the building. Of course this leads to the tricky problem of who parks where. Drawing lines are of no use if you have 8 cars trying to fit into the space for 5.

Such a device would not cost more than Rs.2oo-300 to manufacture, and would easily have a target market of Rs.30-50 Cr in India. Not bad at all for any entreprenuer.