The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : ‘Premium’ parking lot for cars at Chennai Central to be opened

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Saturday, Mar 08, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

‘Premium’ parking lot for cars at Chennai Central to be opened

Kannal Achuthan

About 80 cars can be parked; facility similar to one at airport

— Photo: M.Vedhan

NEW ADDITION: The premium parking area for cars at Chennai Central railway station.

Chennai: A ‘premium’ parking lot for cars at the Chennai Central Railway Station, close to the main building, is ready to be opened. The parking fee for the vehicles will be relatively more than the charge collected at the car park opposite the Moore Market Complex.

Laminated signboards announcing the facility have been put up to mark the area and parking will be allowed from Friday. While a slot in the standard car park costs Rs.10 for four hours, premium car parking will cost Rs.25 for the first three hours. For the next three hours, Rs.35 would be charged and Rs.50 for every subsequent three-hour period. The premium car parking system — a first for the Chennai Central railway station — will be run on the lines of the facility at the Chennai airport.

The parking lot is located between the Moore Market reservation complex and the main building of Chennai Central. Earlier, it was just a vacant space with a drain running through it. The area has been paved with cement-concrete. About 80 cars can be parked in the premium parking lot at a time, said G. Gangavarajan, proprietor of PCLT, the firm that has bagged the contract for the premium parking lot. “Based on the response, we will introduce perks like free coffee and tea for those who come into the premium parking lot. We are also considering providing free trolleys for passengers to wheel in their luggage,” he said. PCLT won the contract with its bid of Rs.1.26 crore for a three year period. Users of the existing car parking lot said premium parking would come in useful when elderly passengers needed to get as close as possible to the station and when passengers were travelling with heavy luggage.

Otherwise, the existing facility, which is also quite close to the main building, would serve just as well, they said. About 1,000 car parking tickets are sold daily in the standard car park.

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