Under the cover of maintaining traffic inflow at Dabolimairport terminal, the Airport Authority of India, Goa chapter has been charging“parking” fees for vehicles which come to pick up or drop people at theairport.
Since last three years the AAI has engaged a contractor tocollect parking fees of Rs 60 for cars and Rs 295 for coaches in the parkinglot constructed by AAI on PWD land.
After initial protest by the local taxi operators and afterthe intervention of the then Tourism Minister, Mickey Pacheco the issue wasresolved but few months later AAImanaged to give a back door entry to the system.
In the new system a person entering the airport with avehicle has to accept a token with time restriction of 5 minutes. Those whomanage to come out within five minutes do not have to pay anything. But those who exceed the limit have to pay afine of Rs 60 for cars and Rs 350 for coaches.
This system has upset almost everyone who enters theairport. Many times locals have refused to take the time bound token. But a newcomer or those who do not know about the system is forced to pay Rs 60considered to be parking charges.
What is more surprising is that if anyone dares to challengethe system and refuses to pay, the traffic cops do the rest of the work for thecontractor.
“We feel sorry for those who are victimized by thehorrifying attitude of the people who issue time bound tokens. The tourists,private cars owners are the worst sufferers,” said Domnic Mascarenhas, theGeneral Secretary of Tourist Taxi Union of Dabolim airport.
When someone comes to drop a passenger or family members tothe airport it invariably takes more than 10 minutes for security check orthere may be some other problems like traffic congestion.
“Despite people’s protest AAI continue with its token systemand indirectly harass the public. AAI should stop such activity and instead makelife easy for those who visit the airport,” said Jayant Jadhav, the Goa TourismDevelopment Corporation Board director.
Ironically even the officer engaged by the contractor (M/SGaruda Aviation Service Private Limited) to issue the tokens has to face tauntsfrom the public.
“The system is useless as although we issue tokens to morethan 1200 people every day, only 15 to 20 pay up rest all curse and movewithoug paying,” said Ramakant Velip the officer who is engaged to issue thetoken.
