Kolkata: Pre-paid taxis vanish from airport, commuters suffer

KOLKATA: Pre-paid taxi count at Kolkata airport has come down significantly over the last few months, with cabbies avoiding the pre-paid channel and plying on predetermined rates. As a result, passengers either have to haggle over fares with app cab drivers, who also refuse to drive at the fare shown in the app, or fall prey to touts.
Outside Kolkata airport, there are three pre-paid taxi kiosks, run by Bidhannagar Police and helped by Progressive Taxi Men’s Union. There is also a fourth “luxury taxi” kiosk run by Help-Line Transport and Car Parking Cooperative Limited, a private agency that demands higher fares than pre-paid yellow cabs.
“At Kolkata airport, there are two types of pre-paid taxi counters. The one that charges normal fare has a long queue of people in front but no cabs available. The other charges more than double the normal fare,” said Debjani Bhattacharya who had faced inconvenience looking for taxi at the airport on June 25.
Shambhunath Dey, general secretary of Progressive Taxi Men’s Union, blamed overall drop in the number of yellow taxis in the city as the prime reason but he agreed that some drivers have opted out of pre-paid service for better income owing to no revision of taxi fares.
Making the most of this situation, the taxi touts are making a killing at the airport.
Cops said they are trying their best to deploy enough taxis at the pre-paid channels and at times they even force taxis parked outside the airport to operate as pre-paid taxis whenever there is a rush of passengers.