Techies protest against parking fee

Technopark to charge Rs. 500 a month for uncovered lots

A section of the of Technopark employees who commute regularly by car are now up in arms against a recent decision of the park management to impose parking fee for the open car parking lots within the campus from April 1.

The employees allege that it is unfair to demand money for parking vehicles in the open and the stipulated amount of Rs. 500 per month is too high per any standards.

Unjustifiable

“It is completely unjustifiable to introduce parking charges for open car parking slots.

“The stated reason is that the maintenance and administrative costs have increased in recent times and this is one way to generate revenue.

“Also, what is the point in paying if the car is not protected from the scorching sun or the rain?” asks Rajeev Krishnan, a software engineer here and a member of Pratidhwani, a socio-cultural organisation of Technopark employees.

Space crunch

But the park authorities say that they were forced to impose the parking charges due to the space crunch and to promote public transport.

“There has been a severe lack of space within the campus with the increase in number of cars.

“Also, the costs of running these facilities including the security arrangements have increased much in recent times.

“This is a way to make the employees think about options such as public transport or car pooling.

Not high

“Also, Rs. 500 per month is not much compared to the amount they shell out for tolls on a daily basis,” says Senior Business Development Manager, Technopark,” M. Vasudevan

The employees though say that the frequency of public transport buses needs to be increased if they are to shift to these on a regular basis.

Technopark has been providing covered car parking facilities in Gayatri, Nila, Bhavani and Chandragiri buildings at Rs.500 per car (plus service tax) and at Rs.750 per car in Thejaswini building, since the introduction of these facilities.

Charges increased

These charges have now been increased to Rs. 1,000 per car (plus service tax). But employees have not opposed the increase in charges of covered parking facilities.