Mumbai: People at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport’s Terminal 2 faced inconvenience on Tuesday morning after a section of aggregator cab drivers attached to platforms such as Ola, Uber and Rapido staged a brief protest. While services were restored later and cab operations largely returned to normal, passengers continued to experience some shortage of vehicles during peak hours, sources in cab unions said.Adding to the list of grievances, a section of the aggregator drivers’ union on Tuesday criticised the Maharashtra government’s move to enforce a mandatory working knowledge of Marathi for commercial passenger vehicle drivers.The protesting drivers at the airport reiterated long-standing demands for government-approved fare regulation for app-based taxi services, alleging that existing pricing mechanisms are unfair to drivers and often leave them with inadequate earnings. They also voiced opposition to the expansion of bike taxi services, claiming that such operations adversely impact the livelihoods of traditional auto-rickshaw and cab drivers.Keshav Kshirsagar, a union leader representing drivers, questioned the government’s priorities. “It is unfortunate that the Transport Minister appears to have forgotten that he is the Transport Minister and is behaving as though he has taken over the portfolio of the Marathi Language Department. Instead of addressing core issues faced by auto and cab drivers and ordinary citizens, such as fare regulation, passenger safety, driver exploitation and the practices of aggregator companies, the focus is being diverted towards language inspections,” he said.The state government has recently announced that app-based cab drivers, along with auto-rickshaw and taxi operators, will come under the direct scrutiny of transport authorities as Maharashtra begins implementing its Marathi language requirement for commercial passenger vehicle drivers. Regional Transport Office (RTO) flying squads are expected to conduct random inspections across Mumbai and other parts of the state to verify whether drivers possess a basic working knowledge of Marathi.Airport operations remained unaffected, though passengers were advised to expect longer waiting times for app-based cabs during parts of the day.
