Parking your scooter, auto or car at Tatanagar for six hours will set you back by Rs 10, Rs 15 and Rs 20, respectively. Dropping off your friend in front of the same station building, which takes 60 seconds costs the same amount.
The private agency that runs the station parking zone charges every two-wheeler, car or auto for dropping off a passenger in front of the station building.
Station manager O.P. Sharma said called the practice illegal. "The private contractor cannot take dropping charges. Parking fee is only applicable for those who park their vehicles," he said last week when contacted. "I will take up the issue with higher authorities."
However, it seems a little too late for action as the three-month contract period of the firm owned by Neeraj Dubey is set to expire by the first week of July.
Dubey could not be contacted. However, one of his employees denied having collected "dropping fees".
Scores of passengers contradicted the employees' claim. A.K. Bihany, a chartered accountant, said he was asked to pay dropping charges of Rs 20 when he stopped his car in front of the station last Sunday (June 25) to let his relative ease out.
"I know this practice is illegal under railway rules. The parking contractor can't collect dropping charges from cars and auto-rickshaws. I refused to pay," Bihany, who is also an executive member of the Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said.
Not all are as well-informed.
B.K. Singh, who works at a private local firm, who had gone to the station on an auto-rickshaw to drop his wife last week, said the parking staff asked the auto-driver to shell out Rs 15. The driver paid and charged Singh the extra sum.
Auto driver Bittu Kumar said it was a regular practice.
Tatanagar parking slot, with room for over 200 cars and 1,000 two-wheelers, is the biggest at any station under Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railway.