Steps taken to curb passenger rush at IGI after Scindia holds meeting

NEW DELHI: Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday said a three-hour meeting was held with airlines, the Delhi airport authority and CISF representatives in order to ease congestion and delays at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airprot. He was speaking in Parliament on Wednesday on a query raised by mediapersons.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation tweeted on Wednesday about the measures taken up to curb congestion and waiting time at the airport as the sudden increase of footfall weighed on the airport infrastructure.

The ministry’s official Twitter handle posted on Wednesday, “In order to curb congestion and waiting time at @DelhiAirport, necessary actions have been taken which have resulted in the least wait time for boarding at checkpoints, entry gates and smooth transit of passengers.” The ministry said, “Display boards have been installed at all departure entry gates of the airport, which provides real-time data and is being shared via social media.”

Apart of this, some of the other measures taken by Delhi airport include increase of domestic security with six personnel evenly distributed at all gates, management of crowd with count meter, CCTV and Command Centre, deployment of CISF manpower, with more under way, and four X-ray machines added for baggage checks.

On Tuesday, a committee led by YSRCP Rajya Sabha MP Vijaysai Reddy took suo motu cognisance of complaints of passenger inconvenience at the Delhi airport before issuing summons to the DIAL CEO.

An action plan was put in place by authorities to reduce peak-hour congestion at Terminal 3 of the IGI Airport. This came after Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia personally took stock of the situation last Wednesday. Officials said certain changes had been effected at DIAL airport T3 in the last four days and these pertain to several areas, including entry, security and the immigration process.

Traffic marshals have been posted at the departure forecourt to avoid vehicular congestion, officials said. Officials said there are 16 entry gates at T3 (14 for passengers and two for crew). Two additional gates have been opened, taking the total to 18 gates (16 for passengers, 2 for crew). Awareness posters have also been put up at the entry gate for passengers to be ready with their boarding passes beforehand to save time during checks. Dedicated resources have been deployed at the entry gates to usher passengers in. (ANI)