Over the weekend a taxi bill showing a fare of Rs 4,148 as the taxi fare from the newly inaugurated Mopa airport to a hotel in Benaulim began going viral on social media. The bill elicited reactions on social media among netizens who were quick to accuse Goa’s notorious taxi operators of “overcharging” and “ruining Goa’s name in the tourism industry”.
Two problems quickly emerged from such a narrative -- one that this bill was generated by the newly launched Goa taxi app that was launched by the Goa Tourism Department and not some arbitrary quote given by a tourist taxi operator waiting at a stand. Secondly, the Director of Transport said that the bill was as per the notified taxi rates of Rs 49 per kilometre for an AC taxi.
Goa’s taxi operators have had their fair share of bad publicity -- and not without reason, but to suggest that Goa’s taxi operators are a cartel or a ‘mafia’ based on the seemingly high rates they otherwise quote is a wild accusation compared with the current notified rates.
Yes, the taxi operators do overcharge -- but that is mainly for short distances either within a town or for a trip ranging between 5-10 km for trips they would rather not take because they are holding out for a longer trip that will bring them more money per trip.
Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte’s assurance that issues will be sorted out is welcome, but asking citizens not to make such cases viral on the media is baffling. Probably, if this had not gone viral, the bill would never have caught the attention of anyone.
The rate, however, has blown out of the water the narrative that the politicians affiliated with the ruling party have been quite obstinately pushing forward -- that with the new infrastructure shortening the time taken to travel between North and South Goa, there is likely to be no effect on those wishing to travel to hotels located in south Goa.
With the taxi rate now out in the open, it is obvious that no tourist who is landing at Mopa airport will want to pay a taxi fare of more than his flight ticket. This effectively seals the fate of the hotels in South Goa and they are now at the mercy of those airlines who choose to continue to operate from Dabolim airport.
Secondly, the rate also throws into the open how an inconvenience it is now going to be for travellers from the South some of whom will have to spend no less than three hours to get to Mopa. There are other issues to deal with at Mopa including sky-high vehicle entry charges and a patchy network.
No doubt many of the issues will sort themselves out over time, but those related to the remote location of the airport will undoubtedly remain. The bigger worry however would be the functioning of the Dabolim airport which has shown a steady decrease in flights while Mopa, which opened on January 5, completed 100 flights in quick time.
