Cars with beacons or boards announcing that they belong to one government agency or the other continue to flout parking rules with impunity outside the terminal building of the airport.
The violation continued a day after a parking marshal and the general manager of the agency that manages the airport parking lot were arrested for allegedly clamping a car of the Myanmarese consulate in Calcutta.
The impact of the arrest was, however, evident on Friday morning with parking marshals missing in action in front of the terminal building.
The vehicles — most of which had beacons, flags or stickers announcing their VIP status — were found parked at the arrival level causing inconvenience to ordinary people who get penalised for a similar violation.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has put up signboards that read — “Fine Rs 400 beyond three minutes dwell time and seven minutes running time” — along the driveways on the airport premises but they seem to have no effect on these government and VIP vehicles.
“Dwell time” refers to how long a vehicle can remain in front of the terminal building without paying any fee and “running time” denotes the time taken to travel to and from the terminal.
Metro finds out how for the greater part of Friday the “VIP” vehicles flouted the parking norms.
Free for all
Several cars, some fitted with beacons and others with boards proclaiming that they were government vehicles, arrived at the arrival level and parked on the first lane right in front of the terminal building on Friday.
The cars pulled up and parked right in front of no-parking boards put up by the AAI.
A white Toyota Corolla was spotted parked a stone’s throw away from gate Nos. 2A and 2B. The car bore a CC registration plate indicating that it belonged to a consulate of a foreign country here in the city. The car’s driver had locked the vehicle and walked away.
The vehicle remained parked on the first lane in front of the terminal building for at least 45 minutes. No policeman or any parking marshal was seen approaching the car to find out why it had been parked in front of the building and in clear sight of a no-parking board.
Unlike the lane outside the terminal building that is lined with no-parking boards, the airport’s parking lot did not have a single VIP or government vehicle parked inside.
A parking attendant said that all such cars park right outside the terminal building and none of them enter the paid parking area.
Follow the leader
An Ambassador that had “Bharat Sarkar (Government of India)” emblazoned on its bonnet in red was parked right in front of a no-parking board at the arrival level. The driver turned the ignition off, got out of the car and walked away.
Seeing him a Mahindra Scorpio with beacon and an SUV followed suit. Both the vehicles remained parked for more than 45-minutes. An AAI official said even cars with VIP passes issued to them were supposed to park in the VIP section of the parking lot.
Bikes and bicycles
Not just car, at least a dozen motorcycles, scooters and a few bicycles were parked in front of the board reminding people of the penalty for overstaying there.
An AAI official said most of the two-wheelers belong to those who work at the airport.
Other vehicles
In the absence of any parking marshal several app cabs, yellow taxis and cars remained parked in front of the building in both the arrival and departure levels.
Officialspeak
A Bidhannagar commissionerate officer said that parking was being managed by the AAI but the police, too, could issue fines for flouting rules.
When asked why cops were not seen near VIP vehicles parked at the terminal, he said cars of senior government officials, MPs and MLAs had flags or beacons on them. Junior police officers and constables steer clear of such cars.
However, Babulal Yadav, the general manager of Mahesh Sunny Enterprises, said marshals had been managing the vehicles on Friday too.
