Union Home Minister Ajay Kumar Bhalla will be holding a high-level crucial meeting today regarding the congestion issues at Delhi and Mumbai airports. These issues include repetitive complaints from passengers about the rush at the entry gates, luggage dropping, and security check areas, reported PTI. Representatives from the Civil Aviation Ministry, airport operators, and CISF, among others, are expected to attend the meeting. At New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture has also summoned the airport chief on Thursday to discuss the matter. The overcrowding has led travellers to miss their flights. They faced long delays while checking in due to high footfalls at peak hours.
The Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Parliament) panel has summoned the CEO of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and the Chairman of the Association of Private Airport Operators. The panel is headed by MP Vijaysai Reddy.
According to the notice issued for the meeting, the panel wants to hear their views on the “development of greenfield and brownfield airports and issues pertaining to civil enclaves in defence airports”.
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At Delhi airport, the issue of congestion has even reached the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament) where several MPs last week took it up with Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. To take stock of the situation, the minister visited the IGI airport.
The government will urgently look at improving the situation at the airport, Scindia said in Parliament last week.
Most of the complaints pertain to Terminal 3 or T-3 of the Indira Gandhi International. It handles international flights and some domestic flights. Reportedly, daily, it witnesses a footfall of nearly 2 lakh passengers, and around 1,200 flights operate from there. The IGI airport has three terminals.
In a separate development, according to a report in the Indian Express, the congestion situation will get “normal” by the first week of January 2023.
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“The situation would ease with various initiatives announced after aviation minister’s Jyotiraditya Scindia visit to the Delhi airport, but it is likely to get normal once passengers going on holidays reduce, by the first week of January,” said a government official, reported Indian Express.
