PATTAYA – The troubled automated parking garage at Bali Hai Pier is finally fully operational, nine months after it opened to the public.
Pattaya spokesman Pinit Maneerat said June 29 that the 738-million-baht garage has worked out technical problems that limited its capacity since its Oct. 1, 2016 opening and is now fully functional.
Using a computerized-elevator system from by Simmatec Robotic of South Korea, the garage offers 417 parking spaces on seven floors. Three hydraulic “transo devices” lift cars into and out of spaces.
There are six entrances to the car park, which requires motorists only to drive to a check-in point where the robotic arms lift it to a parking spot.
Drivers are charged 30 baht per hour or 300 baht per day for over eight hours. Operator Pattananan Parking Co. has the concession through September 2019.
Built in 2013, the car park went into “testing” in March 2015 with promises to open a month later. It didn’t.
Concession holder MP Max Co. suffered huge losses that caused Pattaya City Hall to cancel its contract and take the company to court for damages. For more than a year, the building laid dormant.
The transo devices broke down during their long idle time and when Pattaya hired a new company – Pattaya Parking Co. – to take over the facility, the contractor balked until it was fixed.
