Bahadurgarh Metro stations lack parking

Ravinder Saini

More than 15,000 passengers from Jhajjar district and other places commute from Bahadurgarh to Delhi on Metro trains every day. The travellers face problems in parking their vehicles at a safe place near the Metro stations in Bahadurgarh town as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has not provided parking facilities there even eight months after the launch of the services. 

Several incidents of motorcycle theft from outside the stations have been reported. A large number of industrial workers also commute between Delhi and Bahadurgarh every day and they use their own vehicles to reach their workplaces from the Metro stations. They too face the parking problem. The Bahadurgarh Industries Association has taken up the issue with the DMRC several times but in vain. 

Bahadurgarh has three Metro stations — two named after Pandit Shri Ram Sharma and Brigadier Hosiyar Singh and the third in Bahadurgarh city. Though parking lots have been created at all stations for commuters to park their two-wheelers and four-wheelers in the interim while they use the Metro services, these have not been operative for long. Only officials are allowed to park their vehicles there.

A considerable number of passengers from outside Bahadurgarh also travel by Metro trains to Delhi from here. The number of passengers is constantly increasing.

Mukesh Kumar, a resident of Rohtak, says that he parks his car outside a shop of an acquaintance near Brigadier Hoshiyar Singh Metro station. Many passengers have urged the station officials to operate the parking facility but they express their inability to do so. They say that they can only forward our complaints to the higher authorities, he adds.

“I used to travel to Connaught Place from Sampla town in Rohtak by Metro train from Brigadier Hoshiyar Singh station. In the absence of a proper parking place, I was always fearful of my motorbike being stolen,” says Suresh, a shopkeeper.

Kishori Lal Gupta, secretary, Jan Kalyan Manch, Bahadurgarh, says that the DMRC has done nothing except changing the names of all three Metro stations during the past eight months. “The DMRC has failed not only to provide a proper parking place but also to ensure security arrangements, as several incidents of vehicle theft from outside the Metro stations and snatching have been reported,” adds Gupta. 

A DMRC official says that passengers will soon get parking facilities as tenders for allotting the contract of the service have been floated. “A paid parking at all three Metro stations is likely to start within a month,” he claims.