the goan I network
VASCO
Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo along with taxi union leaders Chetan Kamat, Bappa Korgaonkar and others on Friday confronted
the airport contractor’s employees over entry charges for tourist taxis at the Dabolim International
Airport.
According to sources, the confusion began after a new contractor was appointed by the Airport Authority of India for the collection of entry fees for vehicles at the Dabolim Airport.
“There was a contractor earlier who would offer a entry slip with an entry timing to every vehicle entering the airport and later charge Rs 100 if the vehicle would spend more than 5 minutes at the airport while exiting. However, the services were later stopped for the last few months. But in the last few days, a new contractor was appointed and he began charging a minimum of rupees 50 to every tourist taxi entering the airport,
immaterial of what time he spends. Yellow black taxis were however exempted from the charges. The contractor would even charge
above rupees at times if one spent more than five
minutes.
Worst, the contractor’s employees, who are migrants, began blocking every taxi at the exit, creating a huge queue of vehicles that almost reached the entry gate of the airport, creating a chaos. With this traffic jam, the vehicles were stuck for longer
and ended up paying more. The angry taxi operators then informed their union leaders who arrived at the airport along with Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo.
However, they couldn’t meet the contractor and airport director. With this unavailability of both of them, it was decided that
the delegation of taxi union leaders and Aleixo Reginaldo will meet the officials on Monday. The staff were then told to stop charging any vehicle till meeting is held.
