On Day-2 of strike, airport looks like a railway station

Day-2 of tourist taxi strike on Saturday, the scene at the Dabolim International Airport resembled like that of a railway station with fliers seen sitting, relaxing and even sleeping at any available place they found at the airport.

Likewise Friday, the airline passengers were a harried lot even on Saturday as the prepaid airport taxis refused to ply on many routes citing fear of being targeted by protestors and were accepting bookings for ferrying disabled, elderly or people having small kids. For other stranded passengers, there were no alternate transport options, except for quietly boarding the bus provided by Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) or Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC).

“When I went to the pre-paid cab counter, they told me that they cannot provide me a cab, because of certain reasons and they aked me to take a bus from the airport. I am going to take that bus to reach my hotel but from the bus stand I have to walk with so much of luggage which I haven’t done in the past. This is ridiculous. Why tourists are made to suffer,” said Shadab Shaikh,” a Mumbai based businessman who had come down to Goa with family by Air India flight.

Like Shaikh, there were several hundred passengers who arrived at Dabolim airport for spending some leisure time in Goa, but their excitement turned into disappointment when they got to know that taxis are off the road.

 and to reach their hotels they will have to take a bus.

“In the tussle between the government and the taxi operators, why do we have to suffer? I hope this conflict is solved and travelling does not become a problem for us,” said Sathish Pandey, a sales and marketing professional from New Delhi who had come down to Goa with his family.

KTC and GTDC continued with its efforts to reduce the misery of passengers by arranging buses, but there was mismatch of calculations in late afternoon as the number of buses deployed was less than the number of arriving passengers. In bargain passengers had no option than to wait until more buses could arrive at the airport

A group of 27 tourists from Tamil Nadu had their flight from Dabolim airport in the evening but to avoid getting late for boarding, they all reached at Dabolim airport six hours early. Having no place to sit, they all converted the garden area opposite to the terminal building as cafeteria and open air lounge. Several other passengers including international passengers who were also waiting for security check announcement also joined the group at the garden.