Taxis take ‘festival break’ in RAK

The situation was attributed to the scores of people travelling to and from the emirate to spend the Eid holidays. To make matters worse, some taxi drivers took off from work to enjoy the holidays.

A few taxis that were available increased the fares. The share taxis which used to charge Dh20 for a trip demanded Dh25 to Dh30 for going to Dubai and Sharjah, respectively.

Ahmed Khan, a resident of Nakheel who was travelling to Dubai on the first day of Eid, wanted to spend the holidays with his friends from Kerala living in Dubai. “We spent more than two hours waiting for taxis. We expected to get there before 2pm but reached much later even after spending more money,” said Khan.

Another commuter, Mohamed Salim, who had been invited by friends in Sharjah to share the Eid feasts, said he went to Nakheel early in the morning but got a taxi only after a long time.

The situation became worse on the Eid day for passengers travelling within the emirate as drivers refused to run the meters and charged huge amounts depending on the destinations and traffic flow in the directions.

Illegal taxis made a killing using the situation. They picked up people from Nakheel and Ras Al Khaimah city to Dubai and Sharjah, charging more money.

Officials from the RAK Transport were unavailable for comments.