New Delhi: A detailed action plan has been prepared to reduce congestion at Delhi airport. In this plan, a plan has been made to reduce the number of flights and transfer some flights from Terminal-3 (T-3). If sources are to be believed, in this plan, apart from giving information about the waiting time on the social media platform, a command center will monitor the crowd at the gate on a real-time basis. Apart from this, the airlines will be told about the rush so that the rush at check-in can be reduced.
In the recent past, amid rising complaints of long queues and long wait times at the country’s largest airport, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and stakeholders have taken several measures to tackle the situation. Officials said an action plan has been prepared after the minister visited T-3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Monday morning. He said that as part of the action plan, the number of flights between 5 am and 9 am will be reduced and some flights will also be considered to be shifted to T1 and T2 or T3 at less busy times.
According to Delhi International Airport Limited, complaints will be resolved by these measures
Entry:
- Marshals will be deployed to reduce vehicular congestion in the departure area.
- Terminal 3 had 16 entrances (14 for passengers and 2 for crew). Now two more gates have been opened. The total number of gates is now 18 (16 for passengers and 2 for crew).
- Awareness poster for passengers to be prepped with boarding cards at the entry gate to save time during checking.
- Dedicated resources have been deployed at the entrance to pick up passengers.
- The waiting time and the minimum waiting time at the terminal checkpoint will be displayed through digital display boards at each entry point. A command center will monitor the crowd at the gates in real-time.
- Crowd managers and other aides will guide passengers entering.
- Airlines will be informed about the number of the rush to make the check-in points crowd-free.
- Waiting times will be updated in real-time on social media.
Security:
- An additional X-ray machine has been installed in T3 Domestic.
- Additional personnel has been deployed in the Automatic Tray Retrieval System (ATRS) area to help passengers prepare trays and manage crowds.
- Awareness posters/mobile announcements are being made to inform passengers about dos and Don’ts.
- Additional ATRS machines will be deployed to check baggage. It was 13 in the first time of Kovid.
- ATRS machines (11 for passengers and 2 for crew and specially-abled) have been installed on the ground. In the last few days, this number has increased to 16 (10 ATRS and 6 conventional X-ray machines). Soon it will be increased to 17 and later to 20.
Immigration:
- Incoming international passengers are being encouraged to fill in the immigration paper landing card on the flight itself.
- Manpower has been deployed at the disembarkation point to ensure that the passengers who do not fill out the form in flight get it completed quickly before reaching the immigration counter.
- Manpower requirements at immigration counters will be analyzed immediately, and additional personnel will be deployed if required.
Check-in Points:
At the time when more and more flights arrive, airlines will deploy more and more personnel at their counters.
extra features:
The number of flights will be reduced during peak hours i.e. from 5 am to 9 am. Some flights can be diverted to nonpeak arms of T3 or to T1 and T2. Peak hours are from 5 am to 9 am and from 4 pm to 8 pm in the evening.
