VELLORE: Many railway commuters, who parked their motorcycles and bicycles at the Arakkonam railway station on Tuesday before boarding their trains to Chennai, were in for a shock when they arrived at the station at night: They could not find their bicycles and were unable to start the engines of their motorcycles. In a sudden crackdown against illegal parking at the station premises, where the authorised park lot was closed down five months back as the contractor did not renew his licence as he could not afford the rent, Arakkonam town police cut the wires and pulled out the accelerator plugs of the motorcycles and ‘seized’ a dozen bicycles when their owners were at work.The Deputy Secretary of the Arakkonam Rail Users Association, Ragunathan, told Express that over 50,000 commuters travel to Chennai for work daily. Though Chennai is about 66 km away, the trains at convenient hours from both the destinations enable many office-goers to commute to work on a daily basis. However, those who live far away from the station leave their vehicles at the station before boarding the trains.But after the parking lot was closed down, the commuters started parking their vehicles at the station premises in a haphazard fashion — some of the vehicles are left even near the ticket counters — earning the ire of the local police.Arakkonam town police inspector, Suresh said that he had already issued a warning to the commuters asking them to not leave their vehicles in a haphazard manner in the station but park them in a safe place. He said that there were around 40 bike lifters on the prowl in Arakkonam and that they receive around 10 complaints every day from rail commuters. ‘I have deployed two policemen in mufti at the station premises. What else can I do?’, he said. Affected vehicle owners approached the police station on Wednesday for redressal. The Arakkonam Rail Users Association and the Arakkonam Graduates Association have also planned to stage a protest demanding a proper space to park the vehicles at the station. Ragunathan said the closed parking lot had space to house around 3,000 bikes and 2,000 cycles. When we approached the railway officials to reopen it, they asked the association to take up the contract. ‘But, the amount quoted as rent is triple the income that could be generated. And this is the reason, why none others have approached to operate the lot’, he said and added ‘we didn’t expect police to have taken such steps’.
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