Elaborate 5-point action plan to deal with congestion at Delhi airport

New Delhi, Dec 12

Elaborate five-point action plan has been drawn up as a remedial measure to deal with the congestion and chaos at the Delhi airports.

Amid the rising complaints of chaos and crowd mismanagement at the Delhi airport, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia made a surprise visit to the airport on Monday morning.

Sources said that the Minister along with senior officials took note of the various aspects and directed the officials and the airport operator to take immediate action for better crowd management.

The action plan at the Entry gates include digital display boards showing wait time at each entry gate and one least wait time board at the terminal checkpoint. A Command Center will monitor crowding at the gates real-time and crowd managers and usherers will guide travellers. Besides, airlines have to be notified of the crowd numbers, so that check-in points can be made congestion-free. Moreover, real-time updates on wait time will be posted on social media.

Additionally, as per the action plan, flights during peak hours will be reduced between 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. "May also explore moving some flights to T1 and T2 or non-peak hours at T3," said an official.

The action plan also said that all airlines will keep their counters completely manned, especially during peak hours.

For Security-check (T3 Domestic), additional ATRS (Automatic Tray Retrieval System) machines for baggage check will be deployed. "Pre-Covid-19, we had 13 ATRS machines installed on the ground (11 for passengers + 2 for crew and specially abled). This number has been increased to 16 (10 ATRS + 6 conventional x-ray machines ) in the last few days. This will be increased further to 17 soon, and subsequently to 20," said an official.

The action plan also included an analysis of the manpower requirements at the immigration counters and it will be undertaken immediately, and if need be, additional manpower will be deployed.

Delhi airport is one of the busiest airports in the country and handles over 1,100 daily flights. Among the terminals, T3 is the busiest and between December 1-7, it handled nearly 500 domestic and about 250 international flights. Sources said that keeping in mind the crowd, the operators have planned to shift the flights from T3 terminal.