Since the four-fold hike in parking fees, parking attendents at metro stations have found themselves in a prickly situation with most of commuters picking a quarrel with them. Rakesh Singh, a parking attendant at Kashmere Gate metro station said he was tired of explaining about the parking fee hike regular metro commuters, who used to park their two-wheelers and four wheelers.
With the order of the Delhi lt-Governor on Wednesday hiking the parking fees four times, Friday saw parking attendants adopting a new method to avoid argument with commuters who came to park their vehicles.
An angry Akshay Jha, a student with a private college on Friday complained, “First, the metro fares shoot up, now the parking fee. It is better to switch to cabs or buses than using the Delhi Metro.”
Jha used to park his bike regularly outside the Janakpuri west metro station.
“Charging four-fold hiked parking fees is now a trouble for us,” said Sunil, a parking attendant at Connaught Place.
“Earlier, people paid Rs 20 for a four-wheeler and Rs 10 for a two-wheeler but since Thursday, people are either fighting with us over the hike or are leaving the parking lot altogether,” added Sunil.
He was heard saying to a biker that “if you ask for slip, I will take Rs 40 but without slip, you will only pay Rs 20.”
After the EPCA mandated civic agencies and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to increase their parking fees to four times of the existing fee, motorists and parking attendants can be seen arguing at every second metro parking site.
In a bid to control the dense smog leaving Delhi citizens breathless, Delhi
lt-Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday directed municipal corporations and the Delhi Metro to strictly enforce the decisions taken by the EPCA, including hiking parking fares by four times.
However, the move — aimed at discouraging Delhi residents from using private vehicles — received a negative response. Rather, people are coming up with new ways to avoid paying the parking fees. At Kashmere Gate, a parking attendant claimed that instead of parking within the parking premises, motorist and car owners have parked their vehicle outside the DMRC parking lot.
On Friday afternoon, attendants at the DMRC parking lot at Kashmere Gate claimed that the number of vehicles being parked has gone down by nearly 40-50 per cent overnight. “On a daily basis, over 200 cars are parked here. This number has come down by half today. The number of two-wheelers parked here has reduced by around 30 per cent. This is a 24×7 parking lot and there are about 20 parking attendants. But half of them haven’t turned up for work,” said Akash Dubey, a parking attendant.
On the second day of the hike, Singh said, “On Thursday, people who had come anyway parked their car or motorcycle and paid the price. But today, there are fewer cars and bikes.