The Government will install new on-street parking meters in phases to replace the existing ones, with the first batch to be put into operation on January 20, the Transport Department announced today.

Currently, there are about 9,800 parking meters installed across the city covering about 18,000 on-street parking spaces. These meters have been in use since 2003-04 and need to be replaced as their serviceable life will expire soon.

The department has installed 44 new parking meters at three locations in Central, Tuen Mun and Clear Water Bay since December last year to conduct the final stage of on-site tests and decided to put them into use from January 20. It will also install about 12,000 others in phases starting on that day.

It is anticipated that replacement of all existing parking meters will be completed by the first half of 2022, the department added.

The new parking meters have three major functions and features. Apart from supporting payment of parking fees through multiple means including Octopus, contactless credit cards and the Faster Payment System, they allow on-site and remote payment of parking fees by using a new mobile application, HKeMeter.

They are also equipped with sensors using the millimetre wave radar technology to detect whether roadside parking spaces are occupied, providing real-time information to assist motorists in finding vacant parking spaces through the HKeMeter mobile app.

The department emphasised that those sensors are only capable of detecting the occupancy of parking spaces and will not collect any personal information, details of vehicle types or vehicle registration numbers.

A dedicated webpage for the new parking meters has been set up, while a 24-hour customer service hotline 2332 3700 will be launched by the management contractor to handle public enquiries.