A parking area for “VIP cars” will be set up at the Kolkata airport to resolve the problem caused by such vehicles remaining parked on the kerbside in front of the terminal building on the arrival level.
“The new VIP parking area will accommodate 100 cars. It will also have a display board that will show the timings of the arrival of flights,” a senior airport official told Metro on Friday.
“A space has been identified for the facility in front of the old domestic terminal building.”
He said the drivers will check the status of the flight in which the VIP passenger is arriving. “Five to 10 minutes before the flight’s arrival, the driver will take out the car and park it in front of the terminal. The Bidhannagar traffic police department will control the movement of these cars,” he said.
The decision was taken at a meeting between the airport authorities and the Bidhannagar police.
“We have long been requesting about it (a separate space for parking VIP cars) in front of the old domestic terminal. Meetings have been held regarding this,” said a senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate.
Metro has reported several times that beacon-fitted vehicles and cars with government boards fitted to them remain parked on the kerbside in front of the terminal for long, waiting for the VIP passengers to arrive. These cars flout the parking rules.
Any vehicle parked for more than seven minutes in front of the terminal building should pay a fine of Rs 400. But errant VIP cars are never fined.
This newspaper has reported that the drivers of the VIP cars and security personnel accompanying them do not pay heed to the employees of the private agency that manages parking and lanes at the airport.
On Friday, too, this newspaper found several cars fitted with beacons and government boards parked on the kerbside in the arrival area.
Now there is a small parking area for VIP cars near the terminal building but barely any vehicle is seen parked there.
One of the reasons why VIP cars flout rules, airport sources said, is that the police do not remove them.
The VIP cars force private vehicles to park in the second or third lane from the kerb. Often, elderly passengers find it difficult to get into their vehicles.
The chaos caused by VIP cars that remain parked for half an hour or more leads to congestion, particularly during rush hours. Passengers have to wait for up to 30 minutes to get into their vehicles.