Lack of parking attendants puts rail commuters to hardship

Threat of vehicles being stolen looms large in stations

Even while thousands of commuters using the train services on the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) are facing difficulties owing to absence of parking contractors, several railway stations on other sections are also left without parking contractors for several months.

Two-wheeler parking is an integral part of commuting in suburban trains in the city as people from various localities use vehicles to reach the railway stations. But of late, Southern Railway has been facing difficulties in finding contractors for parking yards in several railway stations.

The absence of parking contractor in railway stations poses severe hardship to commuters in the form of safety as well as irregular parking.

Stations sans attendants

A total of eight railway stations including, Perambur, Thiruvallur, Hindu College, Jolarpet, Minjur, and Tambaram do not have parking attendants.

S. Arun Mohan, a resident of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, said he regularly commutes by train to his work place in Avadi and the lack of parking contractor in Perambur railway stations has resulted in posing difficulties to safely park the vehicles. He said that Perambur is one of the important stations for commuters as long distance trains also stop there. But the lack of parking attendants on both sides of the station makes commuters apprehensive to park their vehicles. He also complained that vehicle users are inconvenienced by improper parking of vehicles.

A Southern Railway senior official said the main reason for not filling parking contractors was poor interest shown by persons citing high contract price to renew or take up the parking yards. Very soon parking contractors would be filled in all these stations, he assured.