A middle-aged man was seen entering the parking area of the Kolkata airport on Wednesday afternoon, telling a parking agency official that he had kept his car parked there through the night.
The reason: “I was arrested by the police because I was acting as a tout.”
A few minutes later, the man who said he had been arrested on Tuesday night was seen standing in front of the airport’s domestic arrival gates 3A and 3B, approaching passengers for a ride in his car.
“I was released in the morning on bail from the police station,” The Telegraph overheard the man telling the parking agency employee.
“But you have to pay for parking through the night,” a parking attendant said.
The man, who was arrested for offering rides on his car at higher rates, asked the agency to accept a fee of Rs 100, which the agency usually charges for cars parked between 30 minutes and two hours. The agency “accepted” his request and the man paid Rs 100 before returning to the arrival area to hunt for passengers.
Taxi touts, a prime menace at the Kolkata airport, are finding out new ways of operation after a crackdown by police and the airport authorities over the past week.
This newspaper has reported how touts fleece passengers.
In the past week, the police arrested several touts. But sources said that like the man mentioned earlier, they obtain bail and resume what they call “touting”.
According to police sources, around 250 vehicles used by the touts to ferry passengers have been identified. These cars stay parked in different places in and around the airport through the day.
Sources said around 80 vehicles operated by touts are parked in the parking area of the airport.
The rate for parking a four-wheeler is Rs 30 for the first 30 minutes, Rs 100 from 30 minutes up to two hours. Between two and seven hours, an additional fee of Rs 20 is charged for every hour. After that the rate is Rs 330 for 24 hours.
“A number of touts, who stay in areas around the airport and are backed by unions, used to pay only Rs 100 and take the vehicles out and come back showing the same parking slip five to 10 times a day,” said an airport official.
Another group of touts demanded that they be allowed to do so.
“There was a negotiation between the authorities and the union backing the touts. The parking agency wanted Rs 9,000 per month to park each vehicle for unlimited duration during the day, but they were ready to pay only Rs 4,000,” said a source.
The deal was put on hold, despite pressure from the touts.
Since Tuesday, the parking agency has stopped allowing the vehicles to enter the parking area multiple times by paying only for one entry, said an airport official.
The touts allegedly threatened verbally officials of Omega Enterprises, the agency that manages parking, on Wednesday.
“There are 92 parking attendants. Many of them are hand in gloves with the touts. They are backed by unions and they allow the vehicles to remain parked for hours against a payment of Rs 100,” an official said.
“We had wanted to hire 24 supervisors to work in three shifts to manage the lanes and reduce the chaos. But the unions did not allow hiring anyone from outside and instead demanded that these people be hired from local areas,” said an official of Omega. The agency refused and the hiring was put on hold.