Citizen Connect: Tambaram rail passengers fear for vehicles’ safety as contracts of 3 parking lots expire

S Parthiban, a private firm employee from Perungalathur, depends on suburban trains to commute to work. He travels up to Tambaram by two-wheeler as trains are more frequent from here towards Beach station. “I used to park my bike at the paid-parking lot. I had to stop using the bike since past few weeks due to safety reasons. Among the five parking lots at the station, only two are maintained by contractors. Rest of the three are unmanned now.” He is one among the thousands of commuters who park their vehicles in these unmanned parking lots every day.

Being the third busiest terminal in the city after Chennai Central and Egmore, Tambaram railway station hosts thousands of passengers and witnesses heavy traffic flow in and out of the station. For those living in and around Tambaram, it is easy to travel into the city by suburban trains. Many of them park their two-wheelers at the parking lots at the station maintained.

Until recently, there were five parking lots on the west side of the station. But it has now come down to just two, which are maintained by contractors. The rest of the parking lots have been abandoned. The one on the left side of the station was removed to give way for a bridge, other parking lots have become an open ground for commuters to park the vehicles at their own risk.

“As two-wheeler thefts have become common, I’m scared to park my two-wheeler in unguarded parking lots. But many do because there is no other option. The small parking lots maintained by a contractor are always full. So people park vehicles wherever as per their convenience. Earlier, RPF personnel used to lock the vehicles parked blocking the way, but no longer do they do it. The other option is to go to East Tambaram or Tambaram Sanatorium to park our vehicles. But it would take extra time on a busy morning,” Vinoth, another private firm employee, said.

Enquiries revealed that the contract period of previous contractors was over. “We cannot control the vehicles parked on the ground which has been not allotted to us. We are not sure when the new contractors will begin their operation,” said a guard of a paid-parking lot on the conditionof anonymity.

While there is also a possibility of stolen vehicles being parked in unmanned parking lots, P Dhananjayan, Chief PRO, southern railway, was not available for his comment.