Pune Metro on Monday suspended a contractor after he was found charging parking fees higher than the decided rate on the very first day of starting a pay-and-park facility at the District Court Metro Station.
Hemant Sonawane, Executive Director (Administration and Public Relations), Pune Metro, said, "The contractor started working from Monday, and we came to know that he was not charging as per the decided rate. So we stopped him from operating and also suspended his contract. The decided rate for parking is ₹15 for two hours. However, the contractor was found charging ₹15 for one hour for two-wheelers and ₹35 per hour for four-wheelers at the just-started pay-and-park facilities at the Shivajinagar and District Court Metro Station premises."
The entire episode created a fuss amongst the commuters, and they started expressing their frustration and concerns on X (formerly Twitter). They claimed that the parking fee was more than the metro ticket.
One user wrote, "Where is the GST number on the ticket? All parking spaces need to have it mandatorily to get the government contract."
Another X user wrote, "If a man goes to office in the morning and parks his car at the metro parking space and comes back after 10 hours, how much will that cost? People will not take the metro and will use their own vehicles in such a case."
Nishit Desai, a resident, said, "The metro parking should be free. Or it should be something like a shopping mall, where you show a metro ticket and the parking is free."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Pune Metro section from District Court to Swargate via video conference on Sunday, marking the completion of the Pune Metro Rail Project (Phase-1). Now, commuters have begun demanding the extension of metro timings to midnight. Currently, the metro operates from 6am to 10pm.
