Police and the Kolkata airport authorities conducted a drive against taxi touts on Friday, arresting six persons allegedly involved in illegally offering rides to passengers at higher rates.
Airport officials, however, said merely prosecuting the touts would not solve the problem and more measures were needed.
An officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said all six touts were arrested in front of the terminal building, on the arrival level, where touts approach fliers looking for an app cab or taxi.
The drive followed a meeting between the airport authorities and the Bidhannagar commissionerate on Thursday.
Those arrested have been charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 384 (extortion) and 151 (whoever knowingly joins or continues any assembly of five or more persons likely to cause a disturbance of a public place), among others.
If convicted, the men can be sent to jail for three years.
This newspaper has reported on several occasions how taxi touts who hang around the airport’s terminal building take unsuspecting passengers on a ride and fleece them by charging exorbitant rates.
Two days back, a passenger was approached by a tout who showed him on his phone that the ride to Tollygunge from the airport would cost Rs 1,000 in an app cab.
The passenger bargained and the deal was fixed at Rs 700, but he was told that he would have to share the car with another flier.
Last week, Metro had overheard a conversation between a couple who had landed from Bangladesh and four men who accosted them. The men told the couple that they had a “luxury air-conditioned taxi”.
The touts managed to convince the couple that the fare to the hotel in New Town was Rs 1,200. The hotel is less than 5km from the airport.
An airport official said the touts bring their commercial vehicles and park them in the parking area.
“We told the police in the meeting that there are several touts who have been prosecuted multiple times but are still operating at the airport. Their vehicles should be identified and barred from entering the airport premises,” said the official.
A senior officer at the Bidhannagar commissionerate said they have started the drive after a meeting was held with all stakeholders at the airport. Several issues
such as harassment of passengers by taxi touts, illegal currency note changers and parking woes were discussed in detail.
“These taxi touts and men who hang around with cash and offer to exchange foreign currency at lower rates tarnish the image of the city. Anyone who sets foot in the city and gets fleeced right at the start of the visit will think poorly of Kolkata. They invariably narrate such stories with family and friends, which further sullies the image of the city as well as the state,” said the officer.
Police sources said five other touts had been arrested over the past few days.
Aishwarya Sagar, deputy commissioner of police, airport zone, said the drive would continue till the problem was weeded out.
“The drive involves identifying such men and catching them in action. This is an ongoing drive and we have made several arrests,” Sagar told this newspaper on Friday.
Another senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate, who has been posted in the area for several years, said it was no secret that taxi touts and illegal money changers operate at the airport.
According to the officer, the touts work in tandem and don’t cross over into each other’s turf.
“These men enjoy political backing and have tried to resist the police in the past,” the officer said.
According to an officer of the NSCBI Airport police station, there are more than 60 touts who are regularly seen at the airport.