Mater Dei visitors will be relieved to hear that the notoriously unreliable parking payment machines have been replaced by more robust ones and the out-of-service time has been cut by 95 per cent.
KIS Service JV consortium began running the hospital car park last August, after a 10-year deal signed back in January 2008 ended.
Health Minister Chris Fearne said in reply to a Parliamentary Question by MP Godfrey Farrugia that the new operator has added more machines at various strategic locations to cut down the queue of people waiting to pay their parking tickets at the ground floor level.
A monitor has also been installed at the entrance to the car-park which shows how many spaces are available, meaning people do not need to drive around and around in the hope of finding a vacant spot.
Another innovation – part of the mandatory investment by the new operator – is the introduction of a tidal system at the entrance, allowing two of the three lanes to be allocated to those going into the car park during the busiest hours of the morning, and then reversed in the afternoons.
However, the minister gave no information on plans to increase public parking. The ministry had said last…
