Railway withdraws Rs 1,000 fine for vehicles parked for more than 30 minutes at Chandigarh Railway Station

“We withdrew the Rs 1,000 penalty for vehicles found to be parked more than half an hour for the time being. The new penalty rate will be decided shortly. I belive it will be less than Rs 1,000. The lanes will be widened. The lane system is being reviewed on a daily basis,” said Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Ambala, Hari Mohan, who was on a day-long inspection at the railway station.

The free pick-and-drop facility applies for non-commercial and commercial vehicles. After the free six-minute period, the people in non-commercial vehicles will be charged up to Rs 30 for 15 minutes and commercial vehicle will be charged Rs 50 up to 15 minutes, while the ticket cost will go up to Rs 200 for keeping the vehicle parked in the lane for between 15 to 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the vehicle will be towed away and weer being slapped Rs 1,000.

Meanwhile, a railway officer said the situation is being reviewed on the demand of the people that the free timing of six minutes for non-commercial vehicles in the pick and drop lanes should be extended up to 10 minutes, adding no immediate decision can be taken at this moment.

The pick and drop lane system at the Chandigarh Railway station has courted controversies and been criticized by the locals since the day when it was introduced September 23.

Amid growing resentment over several irregularities in the recently introduced pick and drop lane system at the Chandigarh Railway station, a bunch of Opposition leaders Tuesday hit out at the Union Ministry of Railways for charging exorbitant rates from the visitors.

Congress MP from Anandpur Sahib, Manish Tewari, Tuesday raised the issue on social media. “Dear @AshwiniVaishnaw ji, There is a strange level of extortion going on at Chandigarh Railway Station. Charging 1000 Rupees for one hour of parking is nuts (for lack of a better word). Kindly intervene and rescind it ASAP,” Tewari tweeted tagging Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Former union railway minister and ex-Chandigarh MP, Pawan Kumar Bansal, too lambasted the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC) for the exorbitant parking charges, which have been introduced at the Chandigarh Railway Station from Friday onwards.