Dabolim International Airport is the ninth busy airport in country and the ranking is slowing moving up each year as the result of 15 to 20 per cent growth in passenger traffic, yet there is no proper public transport system for airport passengers and the long queues at the lone pre-paid taxi counter continues to irritate and frustrate passengers arriving at Dabolim airport.
“If we look at the issue from the passenger’s perspective then it is clear that no passenger wants to stand in long queues at the airport that too after a long flight, but this has become a routine affair here. We have suggested to prepaid taxi operators to increase their capability and manpower so that they are able to give better service to the clients,” Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) President Savio Messais pointed out.
Besides, there should be order and online system should be in place and should avoid handwritten slips which reduce the efficiency. In fact, it should be at a click of a mouse and not a handwritten slips and all this can happen when they completely introduce online system, he added.
“We would also like them (pre-paid taxi drivers) not to gather at the arrival lounge when passengers come out of arrival gate. The passenger is often surrounded by taxi drivers who bargain and haggle; even white taxi drivers come and mingle around creating chaos,” Messais emphasised, adding that proper system should be place like in Delhi or Mumbai, where taxi counter makes announcement for particular taxi and the taxi comes and picks the client.
It’s not that state government has done nothing to improve public transport system at the airport. State run Kadamba Transport Corporation has deployed a fleet of air-conditioned buses from airport but the same has been getting poor response from passengers and currently the pre-paid taxi service is the major transport service provider from the airport (except coach service operated by private hotels).
Dabolim airport currently handles about seven million passengers annually in the new terminal and growth in domestic passenger traffic is 15 to 20 per cent every year.
To cater to the transport needs of passengers there exist a fleet of 350 yellow black taxis at the airport but due to pending settlement of issues, the pre-paid taxi operators are unable to provide timely services to the guests arriving at the airport.
“Officially we have airport stand permit issued by RTO but we don’t have proper parking. We have held several meetings but our issues remained unsolved yet. AAI have made dedicated coach lane for buses but taxi’s being the main stakeholder have been neglected. We have 350 of taxis and at one time we can only release 50 taxis to come to the arrival area. If parking issue is resolved we can provide timely services to our guests,” President of United Taximen Union Sanjay Naik said.
Commenting on long queues at the pre-paid taxi counter he said the union had enough taxis at the airport and the long queues are seen because passengers stand in queues along with their families. Sometimes there is shortage of taxis at airport because our taxis get stuck in traffic jams. Once the both the new Mandovi and Zuari bridges becomes operational our existing 350 taxis will be more than sufficient,” he added.
However, Naik also acknowledged the fact that once Mopa airport becomes operational it could lead to a situation where they might have to struggle for business.
