Jamshedpur : The undue delay in railway permanent parking tender at Tatanagar has become a matter of concern for both the railway authorities concerned as well as the parties aspiring to bag the tender leading to a situation where the vehicle owners and ordinary commuters have to suffer.
The three railway parking tender which was in process of finalisation in favour of M/s. Deep Enterprises was cancelled by the office of the senior divisional commercial manager (SDCM), Chakradharpur. Soon after the office of the senior DCM has decided to issue Quotation Tender seeking parties to run the parking lot for the next three months by paying a quotation fee.
At present, the parking area has a capacity to accommodate 500 cars, 300 autos and about 8,000 two-wheelers. The area, at any given time of the day, is chock-a-block with vehicles. An official of railway’s commercial department said that the private contractor bagged the tender which is subjected to renewal after every three months.
The Chakradharpur railway division took charge of the parking lot about nine months ago, once the term of the private contractor expired. During the past nine months, bike-lifters have had almost a free run at the station. Finally, after several vehicle thefts were reported from the parking area, the railways was forced to concede that it was unable to run the service as efficiently as the private contractor used to.
On the other hand as soon as the three-year-tender was cancelled the management of M/s. Ganpati Enterprises which had been running the vehicle parking contract on Quotation Tender have today submitted papers with the senior DCM office declaring that they would no longer be able to run the facility.
The Chakradharpur railway division has been trying to fix the three years railway parking tender since the past five years, but had been engaged a party for running the parking as the three-year tender system gets through. Two months back the railway had float a tender for the Tatanagar railway parking, leading a local party to submit the tender at the rate of Rs.10.5 crores.
Notably, the contract for the parking lot before was bagged by one Anil Kumar Singh of Baridih in November. The Chakradharpur railway division was hunting for a regular agency which can look after the affairs of the parking lot. In the last four months, tenders were floated twice but not a single bidder responded.
Last year, a similar situation had arisen when employees of the railway�s commercial department, who used to man the parking area, refused to do the job. They cited harassment by vandals and rogue auto-rickshaw drivers. At that time the railways issued a �Parking at your own risk� signage.
