The cabs were stuck on the road due to a traffic jam and could not reach the airport. As a result, passengers were forced to walk to the highway to find another cab.
Heavy rains on Friday in Mumbai led to the closure of pre-paid cab counters at the Santa Cruz terminal of Mumbai airport. The cabs were stuck on the road due to a traffic jam and could not reach the airport. As a result, passengers were forced to walk to the highway to find another cab.
After 28-year-old Anuj Kumar, a resident of Mahim, landed in Mumbai airport at 7.30pm, he spent 45 minutes looking for a cab.
“The few cabs coming are refusing to ply and want to go to destinations according to their own whims,” said Kumar.
The situation arose after 250 cabs in the parking lot of the airport departed with passengers and got stuck in traffic, making it impossible for them to return. “Due to rains and water-logging, cabs are stuck on the highway. It is taking drivers 3.5 hours to drive down from Fort to Santa Cruz from the usual 45 minutes,” said one of the cabbies. “And because of the NCP rally at Somaiya Grounds, Chunabhatti, no cabbie wants to go to Ghatkopar or Vashi. There is heavy traffic jam on the Western Express highway, so no one wants to go to Borivli and beyond,” he said.
Although people were ready to shell out two to three times of the fare, no cabbie was ready to comply. “We are so tired driving that we now want to go home. If the passenger’s destination is on our way home, we can drop them,” he said.
As a result, passengers were forced to walk over 2km from the terminal with their luggage. “There are very few rickshaws also. So now I will walk down to the highway and see if I can get a cab,” said Kumar.
When contacted, the spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said that there was no closure of counters but there was a shortage of cabs at the airport.
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