Parking charges at Secunderabad railway station remain the highest among three major stations in Hyderabad and that has surely upset scores of people who bemoan that they have spent more on parking than the train tickets.
Quite a lot of them have turned to other means of transport to reach the station to avoid parking their vehicles on the station premises. The officials of South Central Railways (SCR) said less number of people would park their vehicles at the station if parking charges were high, which would avoid congestion. The Secunderabad station sees three times more footfall than other railway stations in Kachiguda and Nampally sections. While ₹18 and ₹24 is charged for the first two-three hours of car parking at Kachiguda and Nampally railway stations respectively, ₹47 is charged for two hours of car parking at Secunderabad railway station. Some of the charges include GST.
For every extra hour after the initial two hours of parking, ₹20 at the back-end and ₹24 in the front is charged at Secunderabad railway station. In case of two-wheelers, while ₹18 is charged at Secunderabad station’s front portion, ₹12 is charged at two other railway stations. The charges are high for every extra hour at the Secunderabad station’s front portion compared to the other two stations.
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“I parked my bike at Secunderabad station and left for Gangapur in Maharashtra. When I came back after 24 hours, I was asked to pay ₹450 for parking. This shocked me as I only spent ₹160 for to-and-fro train journey from Hyderabad to Gangapur. From there on, I stopped parking my bike at the station,” said G. Naveen Kumar, an marketing executive.
SCR Chief Public Relations Officer Ch. Rakesh said they have limited space at the Secunderabad station and the footfall there is three times more than the two other major stations. He said the high parking charges is to avoid congestion as less number of people would park their vehicles at the station now. “Passengers will have easy access to the station,” Mr. Rakesh added. In case of MGBS, Imlibun, ₹10 to ₹50 is charged for bike parking for zero to 30 hours and ₹20 to ₹75 is charged for car parking for zero to 24 hours.