Parking overnight at rly station? Think again!

Parking overnight at rly station? Think again!

Ashwini Y S | TNN


Bangalore: You pay less than Rs 30 to go to Tumkur by train, but pay a whopping Rs 350 as parking fee for your four-wheeler for 36 hours! For once, parking attendants aren’t pulling a fast one. Revised parking fees of the South Western Railway (SWR) have simply shot up sky-high.
Prakash, a mechanical engineering professor at a city college, was shocked at the amount he had to fork out for parking his car at the city railway station. He parked his car at 6.15 am on June 4, went to Tumkur, returned to Bangalore the following day and retrieved his car at 6.15 pm.
“I had pocketed the parking ticket in a hurry, without glancing at the revised rates. I was shocked when I was asked to pay Rs 350. This is exorbitant. The railways should reconsider the rate,’’ said the professor. For many years, he hadn’t paid more than Rs 30 as parking fee for the same duration. Prakash, like many others, has been suffering silently, not knowing whom to relate his anguish. The railways contend that the revision is aimed at reducing congestion at the station. SWR senior divisional commercial manager Anwar Hussain said the prices were revised over a year ago. “The intention is not to inconvenience people, but to curb congestion in the parking area. We can’t have people parking their vehicles with us and disappearing for days.’’
The SWR has licensed three contractors to man the parking lots at the station. In the three-year contract, each contractor pays the SWR Rs 8 lakh in six-month instalments. A parking contractor says he makes Rs 5,000 from twowheelers and Rs 6,000 from fourwheelers every day.
Around 100 four-wheelers are parked in the front lot every day, and around 70 at the rear. Around 400 two-wheelers are parked in the front and back lots daily, according to attendants. They said that every day, at least two four-wheelers are parked for over 24 hours.