Now, exclusive Bangalore Airport Taxis at your service

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Wary of which airport taxi to take to the city once you disembark from a flight? Well, now you have more options to choose from. The Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) on Thursday introduced its own fleet — the Airport Taxi, with a signature logo. The service will come under a uniform fare policy and will be tracked by Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
    MA Saleem, additional commissioner of police (traffic), flagged off 1,400 taxis on Thursday and 600 more will be added to the fleet by the year-end.
    These vehicles are being provided by KSTDC, Meru and Mega cab companies. They will operate 24/7 and have a parking facility in BIA. The new vehicles are an add-on to the existing fleet of 550 KSTDC and 800 Meru cabs.
    “Our aim is to try and reduce the distance between the airport and the city, both physically and mentally. Though an enormous number of cabs operate to and fro, nothing seem to be reliable, except for the BMTC airport shuttles. This is probably a first-of-the-kind endeavour taken up by an airport authority in the country to have an exclusive airport taxi service,” said Hari Marar, president, airport operations, BIA.
    The three companies will own 50% share of the vehicles. The other 50% will be owned by the driver himself. Fares have been kept uniform and regularized by the airport authority in consultation with the companies.
    “If the driver intentionally takes the passenger through longer routes to increase fares, we can find out from the GPS system the best possible route to the destination, but only if the passenger complains.
    ‘‘Even otherwise, we plan to conduct regular checks and audits of shortest routes taken by the drivers. If cases of misleading passengers come forth, disciplinary action will be initiated against the driver concerned, which could also result in cancellation of licence. Also, cab drivers cannot tamper with fare meter as they are calibrated by the respective companies,” Marar said.
DRIVERSPEAK
Ravi Kumar CJ, an Airport Taxi driver told TOI that while applying for the job they had to produce a character certificate along with details of their academic qualification and identity proof. “It’s a 24/7 work cycle but if we work one day, we can rest the next day. We have to pay Rs 1,250 to the company per month as part of re-payment of the loans they took to buy the cars. We have been trained on how to log on to the GPS controlling machine fitted in the cars and other devices like the digitized fare machines and printers,” he said.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
The service has generated employment for over 2,000 drivers and 500 other people managing the call centres and control rooms. "These drivers are trained by the respective companies to speak in English, Hindi and Kannada. BIA has also given them training on defensive driving,’’ Marar added.
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN BOOK IT

• Dial: 4422 4422, 4747 4747, 4900 7777
HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM

• The cabs come with yellow board attached atop the vehicle with Airport Taxi inscribed and a signature logo of the service. At the rear, the company name (Meru, Mega or KSTDC) and the number to call for booking is mentioned
FARE CHART For first 4 km, it is Rs 70

• For further 1km, it is Rs 17.50

• Wait charges: First 20 minutes free

• Rs 10 per 15 minutes thereafter

• Night charges: (12am-6am) - 10% surcharges

• Toll to be paid by customer separately