Scindia visits Delhi airport after complaints of congestion; increases number of entry gates

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday (December 12) made a surprise visit to Delhi airport and held discussions with all stakeholders on ways to address the congestion at the airport.

Scindia, along with senior ministry officials, visited Terminal 3 of the airport amid complaints from passengers on social media about long queues and waiting hours in recent days.

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Officials said the minister inspected in the morning the arrangements made to address the congestion, and key directions were issued with specific timelines.

The measures will be implemented soon, and the changes are expected to take effect in the next six to seven days, the officials said.

“Today we’ve increased the number of entry gates from 14 to 16. There was a meeting with officials inside the airport where we’ve decided that a board should be placed at every entry gate to display the waiting time before entry,” Scindia told ANI.

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“Another important decision taken today was regarding the security process. A total of 13 lines are in use presently at Delhi airport which we have increased to 16. We are also trying to add a few more lines taking it close to 20 lines,” he added.

Over the past few days, passengers have been complaining about long waiting hours at the airport and some also shared pictures of the crowd at the airport on social media.

Discussions are also going on with airlines to reduce the number of flights during peak hours at the three terminals. The effort is to have 14 flights at T3, 11 in T2 and 8 in T1 during these hours, officials had said on Saturday.

The peak hours are from 5 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 8 pm.

Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital is the country’s largest airport. It has three terminals – T1, T2 and T3. All international flights and some domestic services operate from T3.

On average, it handles around 1.90 lakh passengers and about 1,200 flights daily.

On December 7, Scindia held a detailed discussion with heads of all major Indian airports, CISF and immigration officials on capacities deployed. The discussion was also on the capacities required at every point to process domestic and international passengers smoothly through the peak travel season.

During the meeting, various initiatives, including plans for peak hour capacity based on passenger processing capacity at each airport, were also discussed.

Security check at IGI airport T3 is actually a horrible experience. I was in the wheel chair section with my mother and other senior citizens and there was just one scanner for so many of us. Took us nearly an hour to go through.

— Vivek (@koshurblue) December 12, 2022

@DelhiAirport @JM_Scindia @MoCA_Go delhi airport always having the longest queues for immigration. Immigrations counters always selectively manned. Poor experience for capital airport pic.twitter.com/lUHA0MLu2b

— rahul mittal (@rahulrawmittal) December 12, 2022

Welcome to Delhi, the capital of one of the fastest growing economy in the world.
We just couldn’t figure out how our airports should be. #delhiairport @DelhiAirport @JM_Scindia pic.twitter.com/Rzf9OKPBRl

— Akshay Khandelwal (@akshay_khan) December 12, 2022

@JM_Scindia @delhiairport @T3terminal Long wait at T3 conveyor belt for luggage. Average 30+ mnts. Inefficient system.

— Django (@Django18362727) December 12, 2022

(With agency inputs)