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| Edited By: Naveeta Singh |Source: DNA |Updated: Aug 30, 2010, 11:27 PM IST
Taxi drivers calling for a strike in Mumbai has become kind of a fashion. On Monday, one such flash strike called by an unknown faction of the Republican Party of India (RPI) led to major chaos at the Mumbai airport.
Bharat Pandey, 40, a businessman from Kandivli, who reached Mumbai from Rajkot by a Jetlite flight S2 398 at 9am was left stranded at the airport. “When I went to the pre-paid cab counter, they told me that there were no cabs available as there was some flash strike,” said Pandey. “But there was a BEST bus from the airport to drop passengers to Andheri station. I took that bus and reached Kandivli by train. This is ridiculous. Anybody calls for a strike these days and we have to suffer.”
Like Pandey, many passengers at the airport had to take BEST buses or wait till relatives and friends came to pick them up.
According to Ayub Sheikh, president, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Rickshaw and Taxi Union, the taxi drivers did start from their homes in the morning.
“But, when they heard that cabs were damaged at Dindoshi and Mumbai Central by RPI activists, they decided to stay at home,” said Sheikh. “But, 60% of the 3,000 cabs were plying during the day and by evening everything was normal.”
The Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) tried to reduce the misery of commuters by arranging for BEST buses and even Meru cabs to drop them at Andheri station.
“At the domestic terminal (Santa Cruz), pre-paid cabs did not operate between 6.30am and 10.50am. MIAL arranged for four BEST buses and one private AC coach for drops to Andheri station. At the international airport (Sahar), the cabs were not available from 9.10am to 11.10am. We arranged for five BEST buses and 15 Meru cabs for passengers to be dropped at Andheri station,” said a statement from MIAL.
On June 22 this year, a flash strike of autorickshaws and taxis called by Swabhiman, an organisation headed by Nitesh Rane, son of minister Narayan Rane, had caught the arriving passengers at Mumbai airport unaware.
