All this while flyers had to locate the cab on the road outside the terminal and hustle to get in the vehicle and leave the airport in a hurry.
The cabs were back after Uber re-entered into an agreement as a licensee app cab service provider at Kolkata airport from Saturday.Uber’s service licence at the airport as a cab service aggregator had expired on July 14, 2022 and with that passengers were burdened with an additional fee of Rs 100 as parking fees that the agency managing car parking at airport were charging from them.
“The issue has been resolved and neither the drivers nor the passengers need to pay any money to the parking manager anymore. Uber will pay the money directly to the parking agency at the end of the month based on the number of cars that have used the facility,” said an airport official.
The official added Uber has been allotted space between pillar numbers 17 and 23 and near pillar number 3 near a Bidhannagar police kiosk. Fourteen cars belonging to the app cab aggregator can park there at a time and pick up passengers. Yatri Sathi taxis and Snap-E cabs use the remaining portion of the bay.
The concerned contract for access to the pick up zone has to be renewed every year by the app cab aggregators paying a fee to the airport authorities which in turn allows them space to park their cars within the airport and offer dedicated zones from where they can pick up passengers.
However, in 2022, there was a change in the expression of interest (EOI) from the AAI’s end and thus although Uber had applied for a renewal their application was cancelled. The aggregator didn’t renew the contract till now. Ola, too, had met with a similar fate. “We have been informed that other aggregators too have renewed the licence and will be back at the bay,” said an official of Omega Enterprises that is currently handling the collection of parking fees and access fees rights and lane management at airport.
In absence of the demarcated pick up points, passengers booking cabs on the Uber and Ola platforms after arriving at airport were being hustled by the drivers, who said they were under pressure to pick up flyers and exit the airport in three minutes to avoid a penalty issued by the parking agency.
While passengers looking for app cabs at the bays were asked to return to various terminal gates and wait for the cabs, there were also frequent tiffs with passengers over immediate payment of Rs 100 that the drivers had to pay to the airport parking agents.
“I am glad that the trouble of hailing a cab running from one gate to another gate is over. Now I can simply head to the parking pay and walk till the bay number as guided by the driver on the app,” said Dwaipayan Roy, a frequent flyer.