Maharashtra Navnirman Sena makes Mumbai International Airport Limited halve entry fee for vehicles

Buckling under pressure by Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the Mumbai airport authorities on Thursday halved the entry charges for vehicles which come to pick up or drop passengers at the airport.  

MNS activists on Friday had threatened airport operator Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) with ‘MNS-style’ action if it did not scrap the entry charges for vehicles. The party activists also demanded lowering the parking charges for vehicle which are the highest in the country.    

“MIAL has accepted our demand to some extent and halved the entry charge for vehicles,” said Abhishek Sapre, divisional president of MNS.       

Though the airport spokesperson refused to comment, sources within MIAL said the charges on the vehicles are levied only after five minutes of their stay. This is to deter them from creating chaos within the airport area and it’s an accepted practice at airports world over, they added.

Airport authorities claim that high passenger traffic creates lot of congestion at the airport due to the vehicles that come to drop or pick up passengers from the terminals.