Chennai Airport taxi turf war gets ugly

Chennai: One of the few places where you can see scores of classic black-and-yellow tinted Ambassador taxis still running is the Chennai Airport. And yet, with the absolute dominance of the smaller and faster Indicabs, fares for the 500-odd registered ‘prepaid’ airport taxis are hard to come by. This resentment spilled over on Sunday night and a few of the old-timers got into a verbal and physical duel with a few private taxi drivers and the airport police had to separate them.
“It was unavoidable. No one is helping us keep our business so we had to step in,” said Maria Durairaj, secretary of the Chennai Airport Prepaid Taxis Drivers and Owners Association. The old meter taxis as they are called, have been operating inside the airport as part of a government-approved prepaid service for the last 23 years. “In order to help us, the State government issued a GO in 1989 and allowed us the right to operate taxis from the airport,” recalled Durairaj, who has been driving taxis for over four decades.
11/09/12 New Indeian Express/IBN Live

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Categories: airports Sep 2012