Taxi drivers protest steep rise in entry fee at Madurai airport

Tamil Nadu taxi drivers protest high fees at Madurai airport, demand fair treatment for T-board vehicles.

Members of Tamil Nadu Call Taxi Drivers Association along with Road Transport Workers Association staged a protest here on Tuesday demanding to revoke exorbitant charging of unrecognised ‘T’ board vehicles (taxi) entering Madurai airport to pick or drop passengers.  

They said that vehicles leaving the airport after the fixed time limit of 6 mins 45 seconds need to pay ₹20. If they leave the airport within this stipulated time, they need not pay anything.” said S. Senthamaraikannan of Road Transport Workers Association. 

But, now, they have to pay ₹135 and the time limit is not followed scrupulously.   While the same amount was collected for ‘own vehicles,’ the amount for T-board vehicles was raised exorbitantly, he noted.

 “When asked about the difference in charging to the airport authorities, they replied that people using own board vehicles pay for tickets and for other services, the taxi drivers just enter the airport for their own business,” he said.  

If the same rule was followed in all airports across the State and country, it could be accepted, but the rules changed were only for Madurai, he said.  

Further, the protesters raised the issue of bad roads in Madurai. Due to bad roads in many parts of the city, the residents were facing several problems in their vehicles. “We cannot change costly spare parts every time when it gets damaged due to the primary reason of bad roads,” they alleged.