Everyone and their uncle is a VIP at Calcutta airport. The result: the kerbside of the lane adjacent to the terminal building at the arrival level has cars with myriad boards or beacons fitted on them parked at all times.
Even the airport authority has a portion cordoned off for its vehicles.
Vehicles fitted with a beacon being parked for long is the usual site at the city airport for many years. Now, despite a free parking lot allocated for such vehicles, the problem continues.
Normal vehicles are allowed seven minutes of free parking in front of the terminal building. The period starts when the token is issued to a car at the entrance booth and continues till the vehicle reaches the exit point.
An airport official said a vehicle can be slapped with a fine of Rs 400 if it stays in front of the terminal for more than seven minutes.
But not the cars fitted with beacons and those belonging to the Airports Authority of India.
The ongoing festive season is witnessing an increase in the number of air travellers arriving or leaving the city. Also, there is a rise in the number of cars coming to pick up or drop passengers.
At times, when several flights land within a short period during the rush hours, the area in front of the terminal building witnesses utter chaos as beacon-fitted vehicles remain parked right next to the kerb of the terminal building, taking up an entire lane.
“They say VIPs cannot wait to get into the vehicles because of security reasons. We request them to bring the cars in front of the terminal 10 minutes before the arrival of the flights. But they don’t listen,” the airport official said.
Passengers, particularly the elderly and those who carry several pieces of luggage, find it difficult to reach their vehicles because of these VIP cars.
On Sunday, Metro spent several hours at the arrival and the departure levels of the airport.
Many such vehicles — some of which had beacons and others were fitted with boards announcing that they belonged to one government agency or other — pulled up and parked along the kerb right outside the terminal building’s arrival level.
Some of these cars stayed on for over an hour.
In front of gates 3A, 3B and 3C, a number of such vehicles, some of which had “Police” and “Government of India” boards attached to the windshield, were parked for at least two hours.
The kerbside area in front of gate 3C at the arrival level had been cordoned off using a series of red reinforced plastic barriers and traffic cones. “Only airport officials are allowed to park their vehicles there,” said an official.
On Sunday, one car with a “Government of West Bengal” sticker on it was parked right in front of a signboard that read: “Fine Rs 400 beyond three minutes dwell time and seven minutes running time”.
Another with a “Police” sticker on both windshields was parked parallel to it, eating up space in the second lane as well.
For the entire duration that this newspaper was at the airport, there were parking marshals to collect the fine, but neither they nor any cops shooed away the VIP vehicles parked for long durations.
This despite the fact that there is a designated “VIP Parking Zone” right at the approach to the airport, to the left of the spot where the road takes a right turn.
The parking lot is easily missed as no vehicles park there. A lone signboard announces that it is a designated parking area for “VIP vehicles”.
Airport director C. Pattabhi said the board pointing at the VIP parking area had
been taken off two months ago because of the construction
of a tunnel connecting the Metro station and the terminal building.
“The board was reinstated three days back. We have also requested the police not to allow any vehicle fitted with a beacon to stand for long. Instead, it should be parked in the designated area,” Pattabhi told this newspaper on Monday.
“If the situation does not improve in seven days, we’ll see what action can be taken.”
Asked why AAI vehicles were parked at the cordoned-off place, Pattabhi said: “Only vehicles for airport operations are parked there but only for a short period.”
One airport official said that when asked to move away, the drivers of the so-called VIP vehicles say a minister, an MP or a senior official “would arrive soon”.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said it was the duty of the airport authorities and the agency employed by them to collect parking fees to ask vehicles parked along the kerb of the terminal building to move away.
