By Dhanusha Gokulan www.khaleejtimes.com
Apart from shopping mall employees, taxi drivers might have been the busiest this Eid Al Adha as residents opted to avoid driving through traffic, making for long wait times for passengers in need of rides.
Taxi drivers who were working over the Eid weekend said they had noticed a substantial increase in passengers over the past few days. Sharjah taxi driver and Pakistani national Tariq Mahmood said that he began his shift at 6am last Friday.
“My shift ended at 10pm. On an average, I collect about 20-25 passengers per day. On Friday, I ferried over 35 passengers. Most of them were commuting towards Dubai. I can say that business during Eid was definitely very good.”
Another Sharjah Taxi driver Mirtaj Akbar also said that most passengers wanted to go towards Dubai.
“I worked for about 18 hours during Eid. I began my shift at 6.30am and I worked up to 1.30 am. Most of my customers were families. I don’t remember the exact number of passengers, but it was more than the usual weekends.”
Both taxi drivers said that most passengers wanted to go to shopping malls and other local shopping centres, with a few wanting to commute to heritage sites in the emirates. More info
