airport - prepaid taxis

chief61

Prepaid taxi Counter at International Terminal operates
on 24 Hours basis, specially during flight arrival time.
clear you customs , counter is on your left side of
the passage towards exit, its Written " Bengal Taxi
association" prepaid taxi counter. Fare to Sudder street
I guess it will be around 200 rupees.

Cheers

atala

it is normal that foreigners are approached with the most expensive option available. You could ask your hotel again and demand that they send an ordinary non-AC Ambassador car. That is what you get with the prepaid taxi stand. The hotel probably offered a deluxe van option, perhaps a car of their own.

Which hotel is it? Better hotels have a travel desk which is happy to get any kind of business. so if you ask for a lower price, they will probably offer you an ordinary cab for about 4-600 Rupees. I would go for that. At night a pick up is always better than a prepaid.

blackbird

In my experience the prepaid system is fine -- just make sure that the number plate written on the slip is the actual number on the car. The only time I had a problem was when the driver asked for an additional Rs50 for petrol -- this was totally out of order and he knew it. After a healthy argument he worked out a deal with the petrol pump attendant to get me to my destination.

atala

This is not being practised anymore in Delhi where you get just one PC print out, instead of the several carbon prints. you just take whatever taxi lines up at the front of the queue, where a policeman guards the place at a booth, and directs the driver to give your name, number and time of leaving to a person writing it into some book. This increase in security must be a fall-out from the prepaid-taxi-murder that happened a few years ago.(Safe to travel from airport to Noida around midnight?)

In CCU it may still be practised though. However, I doubt that a taxi driver would accept a passenger with a slip which does not carry his car's number... he probably could not get his money from the booth, could he?

blackbird

Yeah, the point about checking is just to make sure that he is a genuine prepaid driver and not someone about to kidnap you. And also so that if he misbehaves, you can report him.

atala

The prepaid queue is entirely and unmistably different from the other taxis parked out there. It is not possible for any other cab to sneak in. There would be an uproar among drivers who lined up for hours waiting.

blackbird

Look, I don't want to encourage anyone to be paranoid.... but there are always ways of subverting systems. For example, the driver could be in league with the person assigning the cars. And information is so often wrong in India I think it's worth checking. It doesn't exactly take a lot of time and effort.

Rony

I took the cab recently at Kolkata airport. It is a prepaid system, you give your destination at the counter, pay the fee. They will give you a receipt with taxi number, driver will get a portion of it you upon arrival at your destination. Very smooth and secure system, but the condition of the taxi is another matter.

Cloudia

I took a taxi from Sudder st to kolkata ariport for i think 200 or 300 rupees, but my flight was cancelled so i had to go back to sudder st, so i went to the pre-paid booth where they tried to charge almost double! i ended up finding some indian man (taxi or not, i cant be sure) who accepted my price, along with taking another man, and took me straight to sudder st!
the moral is: the prepaids will still rip you off, so try to talk directly to the taxi men to negotiate a price.
also, since you are arriving late at night, you wont be the only one needing a taxi, so there'll be plenty there eagarly awaiting arrivals.

nayan

Sorry - very very bad advice for a newbie.
The prepaid price will always be a bit more than the rate by meter(or the lowest rate a local can get by haggling). you are paying the extra to get a safe haggle/hassle free transport.

The taxi driver earned more than the prepaid amount by taking 2 passengers(you had a share ride).

You have been lucky in geting a safe and hassle free trip in a non prepaid taxi with an unknown male co-passenger. Doesnot mean everyone will be so lucky.

kaushikb1980

For Newbie:
1) The prepaid price includes almost 70% return fare. For example my home in Kolkata is 22-23 km from Airport. It takes Rs 230 in normal Taxi. But prepaid taxi charges Rs 390 from Airport.
2) If you are not going for prepaid taxi from Airport, make sure you have a clear cut deal with normal taxi driver. Insist him to go by meter reading (current fare system is Rs 2*X in electronic meter and Rs 4*X in manual meterwhere X is the meter reading).
3) Kolkata have a few normal Taxi which provides bill nowadays after journey but they are very few in number.

rhill1

be careful NOT to jump into another cab other than the pre-paid....the drivers look like s%%t and their cars are worse!!!!!

linwei66

I'm surprised, I was actually charged a little LESS from the prepaid both than what it costs by meter to get to the airport from my place. I wasn't taken for a ride either, I know the route to the airport well.

chief61

Different system works in Kolkata airport Domestic
and Internation Terminal, where in Domestic terminal , the
booking clerk writes the Taxi number at the counter itself,
but at the Internation Terminal, booking clerk does not
write the Taxi number , after exit the guy managing the
taxi lines directs you to the taxi you are supposed to be
boarding, as far as the Kolkata airport is concerned the
Prepaid taxis are the safest and economical option but
may not be the best.

Cheers

__________________
Rainbow Warrior

Nunki

Hi there, maybe i will sound stupid...is the taxi the only way how to get into the city from the airport? I hate taxis and usually use the public transport. Its more fun anyway.I dont mind walking 3kms to reach bus or metro...
cheers for any suggestions