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Parking space demand drives tempo owners’ protest

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

UP IN ARMS: Tempo owners staging a protest demanding a parking space inside the Rajiv Gandhi bus terminus in Puducherry on Monday.

PUDUCHERRY: Traffic in and around the new bus stand area was affected for two hours on Monday morning following the protest staged by the operators of the three-wheeler “tempos” to highlight their demand for earmarking parking space inside the bus terminus.

Just as the tempos were steered into the bus stand, autorickshaw drivers started protesting their move. This was followed by heated exchanges between the autorickshaw drivers and the owners of the tempos, much to the inconvenience of the commuters.

A spokesman of the tempo operators’ welfare association said that a total of 117 such vehicles had been operated in Puducherry. The authorities allowed the tempos to be parked inside the bus stand along with the autorickshaws till renovation work was undertaken at the terminus a few years ago.

As the tempos were not allowed to enter the bus stand after completion of the renovation work, they were parked outside, he said, adding that each vehicle owner had to pay Rs.7 to the Puducherry Municipality daily towards parking fee.

“It is unfair on the part of the authorities to deny permission to us to park the tempos inside the bus stand complex, though we have been extending cost-effective service to several hundreds of commuters in three designated routes,” he said.

The authorities should allot parking space inside the bus stand for the tempos transporting commuters.

If they did not come forward to do so, the municipality should not collect the parking fee from them, he added.

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