Disguised Conmen @ Bangalore airport

Does anyone intend to travel from Bangalore by air? Beware. There are con men who are disguised as airport authorities who swindle money in the form of User Development Fee (UDF). Nowhere in the world can you see people chiseled out of their money like this. Even the ultra modern world famous airports do not charge UDF.

First of all, why should the government charge UDF? It is being collected from the outbound passengers of Bangalore and Hyderabad airport. The airport in these two cities is built far away from the city. This makes life difficult for passengers who have to shell at least Rs.250 (even if you take the cheapest mode of transport) to reach the airport. So, to and fro a passenger spends something in the range of Rs. 500 to 2000 depending on the mode of transport he chooses. On top of this the government also wants the passengers to shell another 300 bucks in the form of UDF.

Airport development has lot of cost associated with it. The government has to recover it from the people using it. The argument sounds logical. But where on earth do you find newly built airport where passengers take buses to reach their flights. Even the airports in poor countries have enough aerobridges to board the flights. But Bangalore and Hyderabad airports do not have enough aerobridges. It sounds really funny when we claim we have built world class airports, but it has only five aerobridges!!!

Our civil aviation ministry should give importance not only to the look of the airports, but also the facilities provided there. If it falls short of the facilities, they should stop charging UDF. At least call it as User Degradation Fee.