Title - Plans to stop fleecing at railway station parking lots

‘Tokens will be issued to vehicle owners at the parking lots at the time of entry’

Steps will be taken to end excess fee collection by contractors at railway station parking lots, said Salem Divisional Railway Manager, Sujatha Jeyaraj on Friday.Hand-held electronic devices would be introduced at railway stations in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, and Salem shortly.She said tokens would be issued to vehicle owners at the parking lots at the time of entry. The receipt given to vehicle owners at the time of exit would show the time and the fee charged.The major complaint at the Coimbatore Railway Junction parking lot was that the contractor was charging for more than the actual time a vehicle was parked at the lot.Tenders have now been invited to finalise a new contractor. The tenders would be opened on August 14. Till then, 24 persons would be deployed to man the parking lot in three shifts, she said. A Railway team led by Senior Divisional Commercial Manager K.P. Damodaran took over the administration of the parking lot on August 1 immediately after the court vacated an interim stay.A petitioner had obtained the stay challenging the reduction of parking area by the Railways and had prayed for maintenance of status quo enabling the present contractor to continue to administer the facility. Once the new contractor takes up the parking lot administration, hand held equipment would be used.

The equipment will be introduced in a phased manner at Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Salem, and then to other stations, Ms. Jeyaraj said and added that vehicle owners should object if contractors charged excess fee.