JOIN USOn a normal day, the pre-paid auto fare from Marathahalli to Kempegowda International Airport will be around Rs 550.
But Swaraj Shivaditya, a software engineer who had a flight to Delhi at 6 pm, ended up paying more than double the fare on Saturday when City buses and private operators Ola and TaxiForSure remained off-road due to a day-long bandh on Mekedatu dam issue.
Swaraj who hired an autorickshaw near Marathahalli bridge to reach KIAL, shelled out Rs 1,200 for 40-km journey.
“I was walking around near Marathahalli bridge in the morning to find any kind of transport to take me to the airport and this was the first thing that I got and I grabbed it. I did not know about the bandh till Saturday morning,” he said.
While a few airport taxis plying to and fro from the airport charged the normal rates, a number of other private taxi services were seen charging exorbitant fares.
“A driver of a shared cab told me that the fare to the City would be around Rs 800 per person on Saturday. It is totally crazy,” said Nilesh Singh, an entrepreneur who had just landed in Bengaluru at around 1.30pm.
While cab aggregators such as Ola and TaxiForSure did not operate cabs on Saturday due to the bandh, it was business as usual for others such as Meru and KSTDC cabs.
While Meru charged their usual rates on the day, the company’s staff at the airport, however, said that very few cabs were in service. By 2pm they made as many as 350 trips to and fro from the airport, the staff added.