Automated parking ticket machines lie idle at railway station

Automated parking ticket machines lie idle at railway station
Vijay Times

THE computerised parking ticket vending machines at the City Railway Station, introduced by the South W estern Railway (SWR) in mid J anuary to prevent contractors from charging excess fee, are not being used efficiently . And, the parking attendants are fleecing vehicle users who park their vehicles at the station by issuing printed tickets.

"I was charged a parking fee of Rs 10 at the City Railway Station instead of Rs 5 as fixed by the authorities. On questioning, the attendant claimed that the fee had been revised recently ," says C N K umar .

Further , when I confirmed the same with the office of the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Sr DCM), I was told that the fee was Rs 5 only , he adds.

S S Sudhir , another motorist, said, "The parking attendants don’t issue computerised parking tickets at all. Only on demand do they issue them. Many a times, the attendants complain of no thermal paper (paper roll used in the machine) and hence no tickets are issued. They charge according to their wish.

"The contracts of those contractors, who are not using the machines, should be cancelled," Sudhir added.

According to the computerised parking system, tickets with a particular number are issued at the time of parking. While the vehicle is removed from the parking lot, the attendant feeds the ticket number to the machine. The new ticket that comes out of the machine gives details of duration of parking and the exact amount to be paid.

Ramesh, a parking attendant at the City Railway Station, said, " The computerised parking system is indeed a good move by the railway authorities. Each day we need about six to eight paper rolls. From a single roll we issue about 150-200 tickets. As the same roll is used to issue platform tickets the roll gets over soon. Each roll costs about Rs 30, which is a costly affair ." W e issue printed tickets approved by the railway authorities only when the computerised tickets are over . The railways should issue the rolls to us, he adds.

"During weekends, the number of vehicles parked are more and it takes more than 30 seconds to issue a computerised ticket. Hence, to save time we issue printed tickets," an attendant informed.

Parking ticket vending machines lie idle at City Railway Station

Authority speak

T alking to BVT , Sr DCM S Gagarin said, I will look into the matter immediately . An inspector has been nominated exclusively to monitor the parking attendants. A fine of Rs 5,000 to 10,000 will be imposed on the contractors found not issuing computerised parking tickets. Further , on frequent complaints the tender will be terminated.