On Monday, a Cool Cab driver, identified as Vinod Sharma (50), had a heart attack and collapsed while in the taxi queue outside Terminal T2 of Mumbai airport. “Other cabbies raised an alarm when his vehicle did not move ahead and he was found unconscious. An ambulance arrived after 20 minutes and by the time he was dead,” said Guddu Singh, Secretary, Mumbai Taximen Sangathan, a taxi drivers’ union. Mr. Sharma was a resident of UP, but had been staying in Marol, Andheri East with his family.
Following the incident, taxi drivers at the airport went on a flash strike, saying that though the airport has attained world class status, they remained a neglected lot. “The drivers are working under tremendous stress and are made to park their cabs a kilometre away from arrival area. They have to wait for long hours and this causes anxiety. Besides there is no medical facility available for the cabbies who are an integral part of the airport,” Mr Singh said. “[Mr. Sharma] is the third taxi driver to have died at the airport in six months while waiting to receive passengers from the arrival area. This is uncalled for and we demand welfare for the taxi drivers and proper compensation for the diseased.” Mr Singh said that the two other taxi drivers who had died in the last six months were Lallan Yadav (in his 60s) and Mahendra Singh (in his 50s).
According to the protesting drivers, the strike started at 1.30 p.m. and ended at 5.30 p.m., after members of a rival union intervened and helped disperse the protesters. While the protest was on, air passengers were inconvenienced and had to look for black-and-yellow taxis and private fleet cabs to reach their destinations.
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Airport officials said soon after the driver’s death, his colleagues gathered and raised slogans demanding compensation. “It is an unfortunate incident. The driver suffered from cardiac arrest and we did our best to provide medical aid,” said an airport spokesperson.