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Parking, it’s a nightmare

Parking your vehicle on Main Street or Fashion Street is becoming a painful experience indeed. You are forced to pay the parking fees upfront, only to find your vehicle damaged when you return or another car parked in front, making it difficult for you to back out. The PCB on its part says it has changed the contractor after receiving complaints from a number of citizens. Let’s hope the new set of people are a little less aggressive

Aditi Thirani Camp

It’s a sad scenario. You’re trying to prevent yourself from getting drenched in the rain by parking your vehicle and rushing off to take cover under the shade of a shop only to be held back by a rude parking attendant who insists that you pay first, however wet you get. Having no option you open your wallet, pay him the money, get fully drenched and then proceed for the work you’ve come to finish at Main Street or Fashion Street.

"When I go to the Camp area with my family, I try my best to avoid talking to parking lot attendants there. Not only are they rude, they never help out with parking. I have to be careful to see that my car does nor get damaged while getting into the parking slot and also look carefully to see there is no vehicle darting across while I am backing out," says Anand Mishra, a resident of Koregaon Park. Complaints of attendants using foul language and provoking the car- owner into a brawl are common. "Rude behaviour is one thing. You have to beg for a parking ticket which more often than not contains no details. It’s just a few scrawls on a ticket," says Anand.

By insisting that car-owners pay first, attendants make it convenient for themselves. When the owner returns and requires assistance to get his vehicle out, the attendant conveniently disappears. If your car is scratched or damaged by another vehicle trying to squeeze into a space near you, you can do nothing because if the attendant is close by he will insist it happened when he was on the other side of the parking lot. So you end up leaving your car in an automobile workshop and paying anywhere between Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000 to get a dent and paint job done.

"The other day I parked my vehicle near Fashion Street. When I came back, there was a dent near my left door. It was raining heavily and I went around looking for the attendant. He was nowhere to be seen and as it was pouring I could not hang around for long. When I took the car to the workshop the next day, I was told the door had to be removed and the job attended to. I was handed out a bill of Rs 1,200. It does hurt, when the reason you put your car in a parking lot is to see it’s safe and not damaged," says Paul D’Cunha, a resident of Fatima Nagar.

Sudhir Apte who works on Main Street says it’s a nightmare every evening. "After a long day’s work when I come to the parking lot, I invariably find two cars parked in front of my vehicle with their drivers nowhere in sight. I have to wait till both these drivers are back to remove my car," says Sudhir. The Pune Cantonment Board acknowledges the problem but says they have changed the contractor primarily because complaints of this nature were pouring in. The PCB on its part says they are willing to take action on a written complaint. Hopefully the new contractor will have a better set of people working under him.