Udaipur railway station is in news once again but not for what it has on the inside but for what is happening on the outside. Inappropriate parking charges are being taken by the parking mafia right outside the railway station.

It has been pointed out that even airport authorities do not levy a parking fee for the initial 8 minutes. If you are simply going to drop or pick someone at the airport, no charges are levied. But the city railway station parking mafia are taking undue charges from the vehicles in the parking lot. You need to pay even if you are simply waiting outside the city station. This is very troublesome for the families of the travelling passengers.  Dropping someone at the railway station has become a pain…blame it on parking mafia.

When opposed, the parking contractor’s staff even misbehaves with the public. Parking fee for a two- wheeler is 5 rupees and that of a four-wheeler is 10 rupees. Against this, some of the parking staff charges double the amount of this fee. Though the matter was reported to the Railway management, no action has been taken in this direction so far. The attitude of the parking attendant towards the tourists is also not appreciable. They charge more than double the fee for tourist vehicles.

The disturbing factor is that these parking contractors are conveniently displaying their attitude without the fear of GRP police station which is just close by. They have very comfortably laid down their working table in the middle of the road and charging fees illegally.

After a QA session with Atul Shrivastav of Ajmer Railway Board, it was understood that there is no parking charge applicable outside the station if a vehicle is parked for less than 10 minutes. If anyone does so, it will attract a penalty of 2000 rupees. He also said that parking space is in front of the main gate of the station. Anyone parking their vehicle for a very short time(less than 10 minutes) need not pay any parking fees.

When the airport Director Kuldeep Singh was asked about parking fee at the airport, he clarified that the initial 8 minutes do not attract any charges for parking. He added that this rule is prevailing since long.

It was definitely shocking to learn that GRP SI Ganpatlal Chobey said that he was not aware of what was happening at the parking lot at the railway station. He said that since it has been brought to his notice now, he would definitely take action.

Parking agency owner Pradip Singh was also interrogated regarding this matter. He said that he has to pay 3200 rupees to the railway daily. The income from parking is not even enough to install a parking shade; there is no way he can pay to railways but from the money that is collected as parking charges. When it was pointed out that he and his staff were not even wearing uniforms and moving without identity card which is against rules, he declared that he about to close down his parking agency work.

As per Railway officials, parking contract outside railway station is decided by means of online tender every year. For the past few years, the contract is with the same firm.

Source : bhaskarnews