Vasco, Nov 28 (TOI): The Dabolim airport was tense for close to an hour Friday afternoon, when taxi drivers and owners blocked the exit to the main airport terminal building. Taxi owners were agitated over the alleged harassment meted out to them at the hands of bouncers appointed by the private contractor of the Airport Authority of India.

At 1.30pm on Friday, taxi owners of the North Goa taxi owner's association and South Goa taxi owner's association joined forces outside the main terminal building and blocked the exit with their vehicles for an hour. The Dabolim police who were prepared for the situation, diverted the outgoing traffic towards the entry point.

There are two points for entry and, during the blockade, one side was temporarily converted to an exit point. This greatly relieved the stranded passengers.

The situation got worse after Mormugao DySP Mohan Naik reached the site and asked his policemen to record the taxi registration numbers and later cancel their permit. Hearing this, the agitated taxi owners told Naik that if he dared to do so, they "will send their children to his house and commit suicide". After an hour of negotiation, the taxi owners consented to speak to the police at the Dabolim airport police station.

Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, who was also present told Naik that "for the last couple of days, the bouncers appointed by the contractor have been harassing taxi drivers outside the terminal building".

He said that when a taxi enters the airport premises they are given a slip of paper valid for five minutes and at the exit point, if they are found exceeding the time limit, they are charged 100 or more. The time allotted to each vehicle used to be 10 minutes but has now been reduced to five minutes. Taxi owners have demanded that they be exempted from paying and that they be allowed at least 10 minutes to drop their passengers off. They have even asked authorities to do away with the bouncers.

The associations have threatened that if their demands are not fulfilled within eight days they will intensify their agitation.

Naik told them that if such a case arises, they will be arrested, but the taxi owners were quick to reply that they were ready for arrest and even lathi charge.

A staff of the private contractor told mediapersons, "As per our contract, we have to pay 31 lakh a year to the AAI and so we have to recover that money by charging the counters." Dabolim PI P Brutano said that they have not received any complaints and no offence has been registered.