How the chaos ended!

After going through the information we got from Vadodara Police Department, we were in a state of confusion about what to do next. We had all the information we needed about on-street parking but we had reached a kind of dead-end when it came to off-street parking information. We had no idea who to go to for the off-street and the commercial buildings parking areas. That is when we thought, why don’t we go talk to our teachers in the Civil Engineering Department of our respective colleges. And I went and talked to Prof. Nipa Desai, Head Of Department, Civil Engineering Department, Babaria Institute Of Technology.

After giving her a basic idea of what Park: On The Go! aims and strives to do she was more than happy to help since, in her own words, “Traffic is a topic that really interests me.”

She further helped us get in touch with Prof. S. M. Dave, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty Of Technology And Engineering, M. S. U., Vadodara.  Prof. S. M. Dave is currently pursuing his research on a topic related to Traffic and when we asked him if we could meet him once, he happily obliged!

The meeting started out, as usual, with the customary introduction of Park: On The Go! Prof. Dave told us that he did have a basic idea about it since he had already read about us in the newspapers. 😀 After we told him what information we required he completely took over from us. He talked with as such enthusiasm and glee. And we just knew that we had found somebody who would guide us flawlessly.

He explained to us how we could refer to the General Development Control Regulations (GDCR) published by Vadodara Urban Development Authority (VUDA) to understand the laws of how Parking is allocated in Commercial buildings. He taught us how to calculate the capacity of a Parking lot. He even told us that the information we are looking for would be with the Town Planning Department and how, whenever we approach them, we should be prepared on our side with a list of Buildings that we wanted the information for. He even gave his insights on what areas of the city we should start with that face acute parking problems.

He threw some light over the social benefits of organizing the parking sector. He explained the concept of “The High cost of Free parking”. He told us how he has been working on the topic of making parking a paid commodity in India and how it is the need of the hour. He explained, how the Government could use the revenue generated from the parking sector to better the public transport systems. This would encourage many people to stop using private vehicles and start using public transportation. This would in turn, help curb pollution and the misuse of fuel. After the discussion we truly realised how amateur our vision is in front of him.

(From left to right) Prof. S. M. Dave, Rishabh Shah, Hardik Patel and Smit Shah

The meeting ended with him giving us a lot of websites we could refer to and a great many points to ponder over.

We truly wish to convey our gratitude to Prof. Nipa Desai and Prof. S. M. Dave for their time and the valuable knowledge they shared with us. The world really needs teachers like them! 🙂

Treasure Unearthed!!

After the successful stint at VMSS and the plethora of information we got from there, a lot of doors opened for us. We started learning new things, the most important one being : Getting appointments from Government officials. Things really started to look up when finally we bagged an appointment with Mr. D. R. Patel, Additional Commissioner Of Police (Crime and Traffic), Vadodara. We were supposed to meet Mr. D. R. Patel on 22^nd August, 2013 at 12:00 noon.

Meeting Mr. D. R. Patel was a great experience. We explained our idea to him and got a good feedback from him. He further gave us a few suggestions about how and what we should do next. We sat there taking notes and just taking in every bit of information we got.

Smit with Mr. D. R. Patel (Additional Commissioner Of Police(Traffic and Crime, Vadodara)

Mr. D. R. Patel then directed us to Mr. Sajan Parmar, A.C.P. Traffic Branch, Vadodara. We explained our idea to him as well and that is when we struck “GOLD”. We got to know about many traffic bylaws and how the Government allots on-street parking slots from time to time, what factors are considered and much more. All this information was new to us and Mr. S. V. Parmar was really patient in explaining everything to us. We also came to know about the timely notifications the Government gives out about on-street parking.

Bhargav with Mr. S. V. Parmar (A.C.P. Traffic Branch, Vadodara)

We are really grateful to Mr. D. R. Patel and Mr. Sajan Parmar for their precious time and all the suggestions,feedback and help they provided us with.

We would also like to show our gratitude to Mr. H. G. Patel, Additional Commissioner Of Police, Ahmedabad for his help and insights on Park: On The Go!

The Dawn!

The next few days after winning Startup 2020 and Rakesh Sir announcing at the event that he was interested in funding the project seemed like a roller-coaster ride. There was so much happening around us. The recognition from our respective colleges, the media coverage, the accolades, everything seemed so surreal. We had to keep pinching ourselves to remind ourselves that all this was REAL and not just a dream!

That is when Rakesh Sir got in touch with us again about the meeting that was bound to change us and the way we viewed things in an unprecedented way. So, a date and time was agreed upon: 13^th August 2013, 10:00 a.m. And team Engipreneurs started from Vadodara at sharp 6:20 a.m aboard Shanti Express. We reached the Space-O Technologies office in time and then started the meeting. It started with Rakesh Sir introducing the team to Mr. Atit Purani, co-founder and CTO Space-O Technologies, and Mr. Bhaval Patel, Delivery Head at Space-O Technologies. Then started a discussion wherein first of all we briefed Atit sir and Bhaval sir about our business idea. And then a myriad of topics were covered. We asked the veterans about what they expected from us and all our doubts were put to  rest by the satisfactory answers we got from them. The two main things they expected from us were:

1. Dedication
2. Commitment to the cause

We were told to work independently however well it suited us and turn to them whenever we needed any guidance or for any help. Proper planning was the key to get things right and we will learn more from failure than success were some of the tips we got. We were asked to make schedules and stick to them. The veterans explained to us how it was the need of the hour that somebody from the industry tried to think out-of-the-box and bridge the gap between what educational institutes provide and what the industry demands by promoting such startup business ideas and how they hoped others would follow the trend they were setting. They emphasised on innovative thinking or what they called “out-of-the-box-thinking” because only that will make us stand out amongst a crowd.
Then we shifted to the specifics of how we are going to go about bringing to life, Park: On The Go! We were told to start with Data Mining in the discovery phase and a few other suggestions about where we could lay our hands on the data we were looking for. And then we were left to ourselves to make a proper plan of how we were going to proceed with things. After almost 3 hours of brain-storming we came up with a plan with a proper timeline for the month of August. We zeroed-in on a particular area in Vadodara from where we’ll start the pilot project with. We narrated our plans to them, made a few changes and finally, after a hard day’s work we had something substantial in hand.
The meeting was concluded with a discussion on “Values” with Atit sir and Bhaval sir. And like Atit Sir said, “Focus on the Process and not the Product. Once the Process is good, the Product is bound to be good.” we are truly enjoying this process of learning and hope that the fruits it bears us are equally enjoyable!