BENGALURU: Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has faced tremendous criticism for not having enough parking facilities across its 40 Metro stations. However, its attempts to create a paid parking system have flopped at many stations thanks to public reluctance to pay. Land dispute issues and lack of space too contributed to lack of parking facilities at some stations.
The move by BBMP to introduce paid parking for 86 roads, which is likely to come into effect shortly, is bound to make commuters make use of Metro’s parking facilities, said General Manager of Finance and Taxation, BMRCL, U A Vasanth Rao. “Commuters who park on roads will end up paying higher charges in future than the nominal charges our parking lots ask. So, we expect our spaces to get good patronage,” he says.
This is the parking scenario across Metro stations: the bays at Deepanjali Nagar, Vijayanagar, RV Road, Kempe Gowda and Lal Bagh Metro stations did not do any business as commuters parked their vehicles on service roads. The licencees terminated the contract midway due to heavy losses.Nearly 1.5 acres near Chinnaswamy Stadium was conceived as a mega parking lot for commuters using MG Road, Cubbon Park and Vidhana Soudha Metro stations. Tenders were called for in July 2015 but no headway has been made as defence authorities have claimed it to be their land and the matter is in court now.
At the Metro stations of Srirampura and Mantri Square Sampige Road, there were no bidders for the contract while at Halasuru, KR Market, Kuvempu Road, Yeshwantpur and Chikpet, BMRCL is in the process of issuing tenders. A few places like Goraguntepalya do not have any parking space.
Asked about the status of BBMP’s street parking scheme, BBMP engineer in-chief Venkatesh said the contractor Central Parking Services had been selected and the file for approval is with the government now. “It was set to be launched earlier but the model code of conduct in place delayed it. As soon as the government okays it, we will launch it.”
For the first four hours, BMRCL presently charges Rs 10/15 for two-wheelers (depending on station) and Rs 30 for four-wheelers. Every additional hour costs Rs 5 for two-wheelers and Rs 10 for four-wheelers. An entire day (5am to 11.30pm) charge for two-wheelers is Rs 30 and Rs 60 for 4-wheelers. A top BBMP official said that as per its plan, parking on roads will cost Rs 10 each hour for two-wheelers and Rs 30 for four-wheelers. However, for every subsequent hour, a similar amount will be charged for up to four hours.