Mangaluru International Airport’s ₹50 entry fee for tourist cars and the ₹300 charge imposed after 30 minutes have come under opposition from tourist car drivers, with Legislative Council member Ivan D’Souza demanding that both charges be withdrawn.
D’Souza raised the issue during a meeting with airport authorities on November 5, arguing that the charges were being collected from tourist car drivers while private vehicles were not subject to the same fee. He described the arrangement as discriminatory and questioned why a similar rule was not in place at Bengaluru airport.
According to the report, tourist car drivers entering the airport are required to pay an entry fee of ₹50. A further charge of ₹300 is imposed when a vehicle remains inside the airport premises for more than 30 minutes. The additional amount is particularly relevant to drivers waiting to pick up or drop off passengers, although the supplied report does not specify the operational circumstances in which the 30-minute period is calculated.
D’Souza said the charges placed an additional financial burden on drivers and demanded their immediate cancellation. He warned that he would join the drivers in an intensified protest if the fees were not withdrawn.
The dispute places airport access management and the cost of passenger transfers at the centre of a local transport issue. Tourist car operators are an important link between the airport and visitors, residents and businesses using the coastal Karnataka gateway. The report does not provide the number of drivers affected, the revenue collected through the charges or the airport’s written policy explaining the fee structure.
Adani Airports managing director Kishore Alva said the matter would be brought to the attention of senior officials for action. He said local tourist car drivers had extended full cooperation to the airport’s development and that the administration had a responsibility to respond to their concerns.
Airport chief executive officer Binnu Varghese said steps would be taken to provide more facilities to the drivers in the future if they continued to cooperate with the airport administration. The statement did not specify what facilities were under consideration or whether the existing charges would be suspended.
Ravi from the airport’s human resources department assured the participants that steps would be taken to resolve the issue within a week. The meeting also decided that the drivers’ concerns would be placed before the relevant senior officials for resolution.
Representatives of the Mangaluru Tourist Drivers’ Association, including Harishchandra, Shubhakar Shetty, Abel D’Souza, Ramesh, Roshan, Dinesh Kankanady and Satish Dayananda Salian, attended the meeting. The next stated milestone is the airport administration’s effort to find a resolution within one week.
