Commuters using the Velachery Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) station are concerned about the safety of their vehicles due to the absence of a parking contractor on the facility’s southern side.

As the station has become an important transport hub for hundreds of office-goers from the suburbs of Madipakkam, Pallikaranai, and Nanganallur, the absence of a parking contractor leaves them worried about the safety of their vehicles, particularly two-wheelers.

The Velachery MRTS station witnesses a daily footfall of nearly 75,000. While the station has parking spaces – one in the northern side and another in the south – a contractor has been hired only for the former. After the contract period ended for the parking lot on the southern side, it has not been renewed, leaving it with no security.

T. Murugavel, a resident of Srinivasa Nagar in Madipakkam, said the lot was used to park more than a thousand vehicles, mostly two-wheelers. For the past month, with no security personnel around, the vehicle owners are worried that their bikes might get stolen. “It has become an annual issue for commuters as the Southern Railway fails to renew parking contracts,” he said.

The commuters want the authorities to work out the modalities and renew the parking contract without any interruptions, at least on temporary basis, at important railway stations. 

The commuters using the Chintadripet railway station also lamented about the lack of a parking contractor. 

‘Contracts soon’

A senior official of the Chennai division of the Southern Railway said the tender for a parking contract for both the Chintadripet and Velachery stations had been floated and soon contracts would be awarded.