DUBAI — The first robotic parking garage in the Middle East opened on Wednesday at an office complex in Dubai. The automated garage at Ibn Batuta Gate in Jebel Ali can hold as many as 765 vehicles, making it one of the world’s biggest multi-storey automatic car parks.

The garage is the first of several large-scale robotic garages that Asteco Property Management and its partner Seven Tides are planning in an effort to meet the demand for parking in the United Arab Emirates.

Asteco and Seven Tides hope next to build a similar facility at the Dubai International Financial Centre, before the end of the year.

Using the car park seems simple enough. A vehicle owner drives to an entry point inside the building and locks his car, taking the keys with him.

One of eight computerised elevator platforms then lifts the vehicle and places it inside an empty compartment within a framework of massive shelves stacked seven stories high.

“This robotic car park will be especially convenient for the office tenants; parking or retrieval can be completed in less than 160 seconds. It is safe and secure and obviously doesn’t expose expensive paint work to the abrasive elements during lengthy office hours,” said Asteco Managing Director Andrew Chambers. The technology behind the automated parking system was developed by US-based Robotic Parking and has been brought to the region by the UAE’s MAG Group.

“In a world of increasing urbanisation and traffic congestion, the future is robotic parking,” said Sami K. Issa, general manager of Robotic Systems, the firm that has licensed the technology for the futuristic garage.

“As more and more vehicles in the UAE and the Middle East share a limited volume of available space, the need for a solution has become acute. In our view, it is not simply more space but more intelligent use of space which will solve the parking problems of today and tomorrow,” Issa said.

In pre-opening performance tests, the system parked or removed 250 vehicles in an hour – more parking “transactions” than a regular gated ramp-style car park can handle, he said.

Another advantage for motorists is that the robotic car park ensures that their vehicles will be safe.

Ahmet Oktay Cini, Chief Executive Officer of Asteco Development Management, likened the system to premium valet parking that uses state-of-the art technology.

“Your car is safe from break-ins and accidents or the dents and scratches that are usually the risk of parking in large car parks,” Cini said.

Until the global financial crisis led droves of expatriates to go back home after losing their jobs, Dubai was one of the most congested cities in the Middle East. The government has invested heavily in the Dubai’s road infrastructure, though this has not kept pace with past increases in the number of vehicles in use. The economic downturn has eased the congestion problem somewhat, with fewer cars on the road than there were during the peak of the boom.