Authorities to reduce peak hour flights; real-time monitoring of crowd at gates
Delhi airport congestion
New Delhi, Dec 12: To address Delhi airport congestion, authorities on Monday put in place an action plan whereby flights during morning peak hours will be reduced and efforts will also be made to move some flights from Terminal 3.
The latest action plan follows civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inspecting the arrangements at Terminal 3 (T3).
Apart from posting real-time updates on waiting time on social media, a command centre will monitor crowding at the gates on a real-time basis, officials said.
Crowd managers and usherers will guide travellers. Further, airlines will be notified about the crowd numbers so that check-in points can be made congestion-free, they added.
Amid rising passenger complaints about long queues and waiting hours at the country's largest airport in recent days, the civil aviation ministry and the stakeholders have taken various measures to deal with the situation.
The officials said an action plan has been drawn up after the visit of the minister to T3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Monday morning.
As part of the action plan, number of flights during 5 am to 9 am will be reduced and it will also be explored to move some flights to T1 and T2 or to non-peak hours at T3, they said.
The peak hours are from 5 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 8 pm.
IGIA has three terminals -- T1, T2 and T3. All international flights and some domestic services operate from T3. On an average, it handles around 1.90 lakh passengers and about 1,200 flights daily.
At T3 domestic, additional ATRS (Automatic Tray Retrieval System) machines for baggage check will be deployed to help reduce the congestion, the officials said.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, there were 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, the officials said.
Further, they said an analysis of the manpower requirements at immigration counters will be undertaken immediately, and if required, additional manpower will be deployed.
Among other steps, all airlines will be required to keep their counters completely manned, especially during peak hours.
According to the officials, digital display boards showing waiting time at each entry gate and at least one waiting time board at the terminal checkpoint will be put in place.
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.
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.
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Kejriwal resorting to 'vendetta politics', says BJP after MP Sandeep Pathak booked
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Saturday accused Aam Aadmi Party's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal of vendetta politics after Punjab Police booked Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, who recently defected to the BJP.
In an X post, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed that Kejriwal is misusing the Punjab Police to settle political scores, and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has become a party to it.
"Two FIRs have been filed against Sandeep Pathak, who until recently was in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a Rajya Sabha MP and general secretary (organisation). What is baffling is the shameless, brazen vendetta politics being pursued by Arvind Kejriwal, with Bhagwant Mann complicit in it," Poonawalla said.
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"It is clear this has been done out of vendetta politics by Kejriwal, who is extremely vengeful and vindictive, and misuses the Punjab Police to pursue such political vendetta," he alleged.
Questioning the timing of the FIRs, Poonawalla said, "If these cases existed from the beginning, why were FIRs not filed earlier? If he was corrupt, why was he kept in the party for so long, especially when he was the general secretary (organisation)? Has any new material surfaced in the last few days, or has the alleged corruption occurred only now?"
He alleged that Kejriwal has an "old habit" of targeting political opponents and dissenters.
"We have seen how he has used the police against rivals, including Congress leaders. This is his old habit," Poonawalla said, referring to the withdrawal of Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh's security.
Poonawalla claimed that several leaders who had left AAP over the years, including Yogendra Yadav, Mayank Gandhi, Ashish Khetan, Ashutosh and Alka Lamba, were "hounded".
He accused the party of failing to introspect.
"Instead of introspecting on how they have changed -- from Anna to Lalu, from Lokpal to corruption -- they are indulging in vendetta politics, trying to victimise people using the strong arm of the law. This reflects an Emergency-like mindset and a dictatorial, Hitlerian mindset," he said.
According to sources, two FIRs have been lodged against Pathak under non-bailable sections.
No further details about the FIRs have been disclosed yet.
On April 24, the AAP suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs quit, alleging that Arvind Kejriwal's party has strayed from its principles, values and core morals.
Of the seven MPs -- who were Pathak, Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal -- six were from Punjab.
Later, Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan officially accepted their merger with the BJP, reducing AAP's strength in the Upper House to three.
