Chennai: Using parking & not taking metro? Pay up

CHENNAI: People who do not travel by metro trains for their daily commute or rarely use the service will now have to shell out more for parking their vehicles in metro stations starting June 14.
CMRL's new tariff for two-wheelers and four-wheelers state that non-commuters will pay double the amount for parking their vehicles at metro stations compared to regular passengers.
The new tariff comes following complaints from regular commuters that they do not find parking space for their vehicles in stations during peak hours. This has resulted in CMRL losing revenue as regular and new commuters have stopped using metro services as they fail to find space for parking their vehicles.
According to the new tariff, non-commuters would be paying 20 to 40 for bikes and 30 to 60 for cars during train services hours. Regular commuters would be paying 50% less than that. Non-commuters may also have to pay 50% to 300% more to purchase monthly passes for parking bikes and 30% to 100% more for monthly passes to park cars compared to those who take 15 to 30 rides a month. The old vehicle parking tariff had different rates in different stations according to demand.
Officials said the tariff was released to give priority to regular commuters as well as to encourage more people to use the metro train service after parking their vehicles in the station.
"We are losing revenue because many non-commuters use our parking lots while new commuters who want to park their vehicles and take the train don't find space, hence they do not use metro trains," said L Girirajan, CMRL spokesperson.
Fixing a separate tariff will discourage non-commuters from using the parking lots and encourage footfalls of new passengers, he said.
"We've had cases where many park their vehicles in our stations to go drink in a bar and then pick fights with our staff after they return... no room for such issues," he added.