BENGALURU: A misunderstanding between the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Ltd, in charge of maintaining Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna railway station, and its contractor resulted in confusion and outrage among public over parking fee for two-wheelers in the last three weeks. A resolution appears to have been reached with the IRSDC revising the rates yet again and slashing the maximum charge per day from Rs 232 to Rs 125 while increasing the minimum from Rs 12 to Rs 15.
Passengers are happy that Rs 10 will be charged for every subsequent two hours over the minimum charge, instead of an increase effected for every hour proposed earlier. Reliable sources said the new fine to be charged for loss of parking ticket will be cut from Rs 500 to Rs 125 (per-day). The monthly charges for parking remains at Rs 1,000.A new communication between the IRSDC and Amazing Contractors on February 12 was made public by the Corporation on Friday. It said, “In view of complaints, the parking rates for two-wheelers have been reviewed and partially revised.” The contract and rates have been approved for a period of three years.
The Karnataka Rail Users, an online group of rail enthusiasts started a campaign to slash the new rates by highlighting them on its Twitter handle. IRSDC MD Sanjeev Kumar Lohia had assured TNIE that they would reduce these rates soon. Earlier, the rates had been revised on January 25 and TNIE had broken the story. Then, the minimum charge for two-wheelers was hiked to Rs 12 from Rs 10 and per-day charge from Rs 50 from Rs 80.
There has been no change in rates for four-wheelers. A rail official said the minimum has been fixed at Rs 15 instead of Rs 12 because of the problem of change. Lohia told TNIE over phone, “We have decided to reduce the per-day charges as public wanted it to be revised. The idea behind high charges for long-term parking was to disincentivise parking of vehicles for many hours inside the station. Public need to use public transport to reach the station and the BMTC needs to run more buses to facilitate that.”