Acting swiftly over the attention drawn by the The Pioneer through a report published in August 27 edition of the newspaper, authorities at Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi have finally got the distorted board fixed showing ‘free pick-up and dropping only up to five minutes’ with legible letters and numbers on it.
Parking agents, in order to misguide first time passengers, had earlier distorted the board by painting on the number showing 5 minutes deadline to cross the terminal drive way or they will have to pay parking charges.
When enquired about the change, a parking staff tacitly mumbled that it was done on the instructions of the commercial staff at the Airport.
Besides straitening the board, some fresh directions have also been passed by the Airport Authorities to streamline the parking lot so that the passengers do not have to come across any confrontation with the parking agents who allegedly charge even from those vehicles not crossing the five minutes deadline set by the Airport Authorities.
“Following a dispute over the payment of parking charges from a vehicle on Tuesday, all the taxi drivers have been directed not to cross the barrier at the parking lot and keep standing with their own vehicles and wait there till the passengers arrive there and ask for it,” said an employee at Birsa Munda Airport.
Earlier, the taxi drivers used to gather at the main exit point of the airport terminal, created a hindrance over the drive way, making it impossible for any vehicle to cross it within the stipulated five minute time frame, said the employee.
Parking staffs on the other hand, have their own grievances and claimed that they were going through acute loss due to a number of lacunas at the parking lot.
“Even if we demand parking charges genuinely, we are projected as villains….. Parking lot contract here at Ranchi Airport is a complete loss. last month we were at a loss of around Rs one lakh…God knows what will happen in the coming months,” said a parking staff.
The contract for the parking lot has been let out for monthly revenue of Rs 4.24 lakh per month which is to be paid to the Airport Authorities.
Several requests were made to the authorities not to allow vehicles to be parked outside the parking lot but there was no one to hear them.
“At least 200 vehicles keep standing outside the terminal daily, till the person he has been waiting for comes out of the terminal building and makes him a call to come and pick him up. It is a clear cut loss for us, which must be dealt with strictly not allowing any vehicle to park his or her vehicle outside the parking lot,” said another parking staff Manoj.
“Moreover, we cannot even charge from any VIP vehicle which also counts to over 100 vehicles per day. ….. Just imagine what will be left for us,” said the parking agent.
“Furthermore, some of the regular passengers often throw away the timing slips provided to them at the entry point claiming that they were not given any slip and had just entered the drive away for pick up or dropping; we have no choice but to let them go without charging anything,” added the agent. After a much hullabaloo, electronic timing machine had been reinstated at the main entrance of Airport terminal. Passengers along with their acquaintances do have to confront such situation every now and then as they have to pay parking fee ‘illegitimately’ charged by the unruly parking agents.