Sharjah, June 9 (The National) : Motorists in Sharjah will soon be able to renew their parking cards and pay their municipality fines at shopping centres.

The self-service payment system will be launched in two weeks, Abdul Rahman al Mahmoud, the head of the Sharjah Municipality transport and freight department, said yesterday.

Though only two machines will be available at first, one at Mega Mall and the other at Sahara Shopping Centre, nine machines costing almost Dh1 million will be in service.

“Once the machines are installed, residents will be provided with a number of options related to parking, such as buying credit for the pre-paid parking card and renewing the parking card in addition to transferring credit to another person’s parking card,” Mr al Mahmoud said.

The touch-screen machines will also have the option of displaying a motorist’s record of parking offences and will offer the option to pay off fines with a credit card or an ATM card.