Need systematic regularisation of paid parking at all Railway Stations on IR

One Mr B. Sivakumar is the present DRUCC member of Madurai Division, Southern Railway. He have parked his vehicle on 5th May 2022 at Nagercoil Junction Parking premises. He had planned to make a trip to Chennai by train no. 12634 with PNR 4129715588.

After parking the motorcycle he informed parking authorities that he would return from Chennai to Nagercoil after four days. So the parking authorities charged him Rs. 100/- and gave a receipt for the same. The soft copy of the receipt is attached herewith.

Subsequently, he returned from Chennai to Trivandrum by flight one day advance. He travelled from Trivandrum to Nagercoil by road by MP Vijaya Kumar vehicle and after reaching Nagercoil he took delivery of his motorcycle immediately.

He requested the parking authorities to refund the balance amount due to him in this regard. They have straight way refused to refund the balance amount.

Further to this, he asked the parking authorities at Nagercoil Junction to give the compliant book to register his complaint. They vehemently denied giving the compliant book.

When he repeatedly persisted and showed his DRUCC identity card they returned the balance amount of Rs. 25 to him. “I am sorry to note that even a well knowledgeable DRUCC member, this poor state of affairs happen. Lay man passenger you can assume the real state of affairs”, he said by sending his complaint via email to the #Railwhispers.

He also requested railway authorities concerned to take stringent action against parking contractor/authorities. “Several such complaints from various quarters have been received at Trivandrum Division level. But no proper redressal of the grievances have even been done at Nagercoil Jn Railway station”, he said.

In order to avoid future misdeeds/malpractices/irregularities, he has given the following suggestions to put forth for kind consideration and necessary action to the railway administration –

1. Instead of issuance of manual handmade slip for evidence for parking, railway authorities at Trivandrum division in particular and in all over the Indian Railways in general should consider issuance of digitalized receipt slip indicating name of the railway station, Vehicle plate number, Date and Time of parking, they should collect only minimal fare for the vehicle parked at the time.

2. Based on the delivery time of the vehicle only, revised new slip should be issued after deducting the original charge collected at the time of parking the vehicle at the time of original parking. This type of system is followed in Aluva railway station within the same Trivandrum Division. Why can’t it be implemented at Nagercoil Jn and all railway stations at all over the Indian Railways.

3. Compulsory CCTV cameras should be installed in parking slot with full coverage. This is being followed in all major railway stations of Southern Railway in particular and the Indian Railways in general.

4. In certain stations like Kulithurai it is observed that even for short pickup and drop certain amount is collected by parking contractors unofficially without giving any receipt. This practice should be regularised and rationalised all over Southern Railway and all over the Indian Railways, and uniform practice should be adapted by clear transparency.

5. Please consider payment of parking fees by various digital payments like Google pay, PhonePe, Bhim, Debit Card/Credit Card etc.

6. In all the major airports of India entry and exit points are well regulated with automated boom barriers/toll barriers. Parking charges are made accordingly. Kindly consider the introduction of such a system in all major railway stations of Southern Railway and all over the Indian Railways.

7. It is very well understood that RPF personnel are collecting underground a bulk amount from the app based call taxi. So it is requested that separate parking space may be allotted by the Railways and collect monthly fare from the app based call taxi companies. So that underground dealing can be completely wiped out. This facility is being extended to OLA cab operators at Hyderabad Samshadabad airport.

8. It is also requested that premium parking may be introduced for four wheelers on trial basics.

It is also known to everybody, Kottar railway station feeder road is being occupied illegally by various trucks contains goods like groceries, vegetables, household items etc. This property is completely owned by Railways.

In order to increase the revenue of Railways it is requested that suitable contractor may be awarded for collecting the parking fee from truck owners. This will heavily boost the railway income at Nagercoil Jn and reduce the illegal activities.