High parking fees at Secunderabad railway station irks passengers

HYDERABAD: Complaints about exorbitant parking charges are not new. However, have you heard about the price for parking at an establishment being higher than the service it provides? Welcome to Secunderabad railway station where you get a sleeper-class ticket to Vijayawada for Rs 250, you have to pay Rs 650 for parking your vehicle!

However, the situation is not the same at other two major railway stations - Nampally and Kacheguda -- where passengers pay a nominal amount for a 24-hour parking. A visit to the three major railway stations showed that while customers at Secunderabad railway station have to pay Rs 450 for parking their two-wheelers for a day, those opting for Nampally and Kacheguda railway stations have to shell out Rs 142 and Rs 100 respectively. 

K Praveen Kumar, a passenger had to pay Rs 690 for parking his two-wheeler at Secunderabad for 39 hours. He said “I was shocked to find that  the parking fee is more than the rail ticket. I had parked it and gone to my hometown for a day and returned within 34 hours. The parking agency charged a huge amount,” he said.

Parking personnel reportedly told him that they had taken the contract from the railway authorities for a huge sum. “We had no option but to pay the money. We requested South Central Railway to take action against them,” he said.When contacted, an SCR official said, “SCR has fixed the parking fee for vehicles to agencies at the railway station.  The agency members should not charge more than the fixed charges. Officials can make a sudden inspection and if anyone is seen charging more than the SCR guidelines, action would be taken against them.”