In a startling revelation, it has come to light that residents in Chennai are being illegally charged for parking in areas such as Marina Beach, Besant Nagar, and T Nagar, despite the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) not authorizing any fee collection. The former parking contractor, Tamil Nadu Ex-Servicemen Corporation (Texco), whose contract expired in December 2024, has continued to collect exorbitant charges without official permission.
The GCC has made it clear that no individual or agency is currently authorized to collect parking fees in the city. Citizens are urged to refuse payment if asked for fees at any parking location. Despite this, for the past four months, Texco personnel—many of whom do not meet the organization’s recruitment criteria—have been collecting fees ranging from ₹20 to ₹90 at will.
Initially hired in July 2024 on a six-month contract to manage over 11,000 parking slots across key areas, Texco was supposed to charge ₹20 per hour for cars and ₹5 for two-wheelers, deploying 450 staff. Instead, they employed about 45 young men on daily wages and continued operations illegally even after their contract ended.
Investigations revealed some vendors, particularly in T Nagar, were colluding with local businesses to ‘reserve’ public parking spots for private use by falsely claiming to have paid lump sums to GCC. Though digital payment systems linked to the GCC’s bank account were issued, cash transactions were rampant, and much of the collected revenue never reached the Corporation’s coffers.
Activists and citizens have flagged this growing scam. Civic volunteer Swadish Bharathi highlighted misuse of QR payment systems and unauthorized hiring practices. Revenue figures show Texco reported ₹1.75 crore over six months—far below GCC’s expected daily earnings of ₹11 lakh—raising serious concerns about transparency and enforcement.
Acknowledging the issue, GCC Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran confirmed that the Corporation plans to terminate the current system and appoint new regional contractors to bring order and accountability to Chennai’s parking management.
(With inputs from TOI)
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