The tactics have changed but taxi touts are still active at the Calcutta airport, harassing and fleecing fliers even in the presence of police.

The authorities have made special arrangements for Haj pilgrims and a large shamiana has been erected at the parking lot opposite the old terminal building, where touts used to park their vehicles. The vehicles would be brought in front of the terminal once they got passengers.

The place also had a number of food stalls.

Thanks to the considerable police deployment around the shamiana, the touts have shifted base to the road in front of the new air traffic control (ATC) tower.

Nearly half a dozen vehicles with commercial number plates were seen parked on both flanks of the road on Sunday. Several others were parked on the road leading to the cargo terminal and the one that leads to “gate number 2.5”.

On Sunday afternoon, at least four men who claimed to have “luxury AC taxis” approached this newspaper in front of gates 2A and 2B on the arrival level of the new integrated terminal.

When told that the destination was Salt Lake stadium, the men demanded a fare of Rs 1,100.

“AC garitey gele 1,100 taka porbey. Khali firtey hoy. Stadium onek durey ekhan theke. Bosun, aapni na hoy 950 diye deben (The fare for an AC ride is Rs 1,100. We don’t get any passengers on our way back. You can give me Rs 950),” said a man dressed in a white shirt and black trousers.

The distance between the airport terminal and the Salt Lake stadium is 11km.

The fares on multiple app-cab aggregators varied between Rs 439 and Rs 550 on Sunday afternoon.

Another man, wearing a green T-shirt and a pair of jeans, approached a woman who had a couple of trolley bags and asked her where she was headed.

The woman replied that she had booked an app cab but the man continued to follow her and tried to speak to her till the app cab arrived at the designatedpick-up point.

All this while, at least three cops were standing not far from the prepaid taxi booking counter run by the Bidhannagar commissionerate.

The Telegraph in January ran a campaign on various problems faced by passengers at the Calcutta airport — dirty washrooms, car chaos in front of the terminal on the arrival level, harassment by taxi touts, unauthorised parking by VIP cars in front of the terminal on the arrival level and restricted access to Wi-Fi, among others.

In December and January, the police had arrested more than 50 taxi touts.

The cops have also fixed six CCTV cameras in the taxi bay and on the prepaid taxi booking kiosk for increased surveillance. Because of these measures, the taxi touts are less conspicuous now.

However, many continue to stalk and harass passengers right in front of the terminal building.

The deputy commissioner of police, airport, Bidhannagar commissionerate, Aishwarya Sagar, said the touts are a problem at all airports in the country. The commissionerate, she said, is conducting regular drives to root out the menace.

“Touts are there at every airport. We are conducting regular drives and have arrested at least five touts in the past couple of weeks,” said Sagar.

Another senior officer said the touts enjoy political patronage. “Days after being arrested, they are back after securing bail,” the officer said.