Goemkarponn desk
MARGAO: South Goa Tourist Taxi owners have expressed apprehensions over the closure of South Goa Airport at Dabolim.
In a letter to Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte and Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho, the taxi operators have also demanded a clear stand on the Goa Miles app.
“This is to bring to your attention that we are the taxi operators of the South Goa coastal belt, operating the taxi business for the past 30 years, providing Taxi service to starred hotels along the coast of Goa. As the starred Hotels demand high-end Taxis, we have invested in expensive Taxis like Toyota Innova, BMW, Mercedes etc. to meet the demand of the high-end tourists who are coming to Goa and staying in the starred hotels therefore we pay higher instalments on our tourist vehicle,” they said in the letter.
Further, they added, “We also operate our taxis in a queue systems manner at every taxi stand and also have a union at respected hotel stands to maintain sustainable livelihoods securities to our families through our self-employed taxi business”.
They lamented that currently, they have seen that there is a lot of Interference from Goa Miles App-based taxis taking our business and keeping us high and dry at our hotel stands without any business for us.
It is also learned that the Present airport in South Goa (Dabolim Airport) will likely be dysfunctional from the current season onwards.
“We fear that closure of the Airport in South Goa will bring less of tourists and therefore this would affect the business for the Stakeholders in south Goa who are running a business in Tourist related activities. We await your timely and positive intervention,” teh letter reads.
