Hiring a pre-paid cab from Mumbai domestic airport just became much easier and cheaper, as the Regional Transport Office (RTO) sorted out the confusions with the rate card for pre-paid cabs at the Santa Cruz airport.
According to the pre-paid fare list prepared by the RTO, a cab for Andheri (E) station will now cost you Rs60 as it falls within the 0-4km slab. In the old list, which was based on a 0-7km slab, the passenger would have to shell out Rs100.
The operation of pre-paid cabs at domestic terminal had created a lot of confusion since its inception on July 22, 2009. The international terminus of the airport at Sahar has a pre-paid cab service for more than 20 years. When the system started at the domestic airport, the rate for minimum distance, which started with the slab of 0-7kms, was Rs110, while that at Sahar was Rs120.
There were violent protests by cabbies as passengers preferred private cabs. On July 30, the RTO brought down the minimum rate to Rs100 for 0-7kms at Santa Cruz and engaged itself in an exhaustive survey. “After conducting an exhaustive survey which included cab drivers, RTO officials and traffic police officials, we made this list and submitted it to Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) which is manning the pre-paid counter at the airport,” says Vikas Pandkar, an RTO official.
Under the new pre-paid system, a passenger can now hire a cab up to 112 km from the airport, which will include places such as Alibag, Rasayani, Ambadi, Nerul, Pen, Karjat, Dahanu and Karnala bird sanctuary. The old system considered places only up to 60km range from the airport. The maximum fare to Alibagh for a black-and-yellow cab is Rs1,510 and Rs1,930 for cool cab. If you hire a car from a car rental service like Akbar travels, you will have to cough up Rs4,400 for Alibag.
However, the new list is applicable to Santacruz terminal only and the RTO has no plans to revise the rate card at Sahar. “Passengers from domestic terminal mostly hire cabs for nearer places. This is not the case at Sahar which is busy during the night and the driver has to wait for longer hours to get a passenger,” says Pandkar.
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