Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport’s security infrastructure “has frozen over time” and failed to keep pace with the increase in flights and passengers, a top Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) official said on a day a Parliamentary panel announced its decision to summon the airport’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Videh Kumar Jaipuriar.
The Parliamentary panel on Transport, Tourism and Culture has summoned the CEO on December 15, its Chairperson V. Vijayasai Reddy told reporters.
“Security equipment can only clear a fixed number of passengers per hour. So, if the airport decides to increase flights, it should also increase its security furniture. But that has frozen over time, while the number of passengers has kept increasing,” a senior BCAS official told The Hindu.
The official said that the airport must match the number of flights with the infrastructure, instead of increasing flights without the requisite infrastructure or adding “coffee and tea shops”. The average number of flights per hour from the IGI Airport’s Terminal 3 during peak hours is between 19 to 21, while officials say the 13 X-ray machines currently available are capable of handling passengers for up to 15 flights per hour only.
An assessment of security arrangements and passenger flow at the Delhi airport was carried out by the BCAS in November and the findings on the infrastructure gaps were also conveyed, it is reliably learnt.
The failure to address the gaps has now led to long queues at entry gates, check-in desks, and the pre-embarkation security check area, so much so that passengers have complained of missing their flights, and fights have broken out inside the airport. IGI Airport’s Terminal 3 is found to be the worst hit. IndiGo has advised its passengers to arrive at the airport 3.5 hours before domestic flights.
This was among the glaring gaps highlighted during Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s visit to Terminal 3 at IGI Airport on Monday, following which the Ministry announced that the airport will increase its X-ray machines from 13 to 16, and eventually to 20. A lounge is being demolished to deploy the three additional machines. On Tuesday, the Ministry also ordered airlines to ensure all their check-in counters were adequately staffed.
While security machines such as door frame metal detectors and X-ray-cum-automatic tray retrieval systems are bought and installed by airport operators, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) provides manpower for deploying personnel for these equipment. The expenditure on these is part of the airport’s capital expenditure; the expenditure on the CISF’s deployment is funded by the aviation security fee component of the airfare.
The messy scenes at the airport are unfolding when its daily passenger numbers have touched 1,95,000 (all its three terminals combined). This is thrice the average daily flow of 59,529 passengers per day in December 2019. According to government data, the airport recorded 17.85 lakh passengers in December 2019.
Nationwide, domestic passenger numbers have already surpassed pre-COVID-19 numbers and on December 12, there were 4.27 lakh domestic air passengers.
The BCAS as well as the CISF have sought rationalisation in the number of flights in order to prevent “bunching” of flights during peak hours at IGI Airport’s Terminal 3.
“When Mr. Scindia visited the airport, it was shown to him that there were as many as 21 flights per hour in the morning, while we have the infrastructure to cater to only 15 flights per hour,” a senior CISF official said.
It has been decided that there will be no more than 15 flights between 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., and 16 flights each hour between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. Airlines like IndiGo have already started moving their flights to the airport’s Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
Each X-ray machine has the capacity to clear up to 275 trays per hour, and it is estimated that every passenger on an average brings 1.5 trays, that is, only approximately 210 passengers can be cleared per hour. With 13 machines deployed, only 2,730 passengers can be cleared per hour — a number that’s equivalent to the seating capacity of 15 domestic aircraft with 180 passenger seats, explained an official. For bigger aircraft deployed on international routes that depart from Terminal 3, the seating capacity could be as high as 300 seats.
While congestion at several other airports like Mumbai has also been a problem, it has been worse in Delhi because of the winter season, with passengers divesting multiple layers of woollens and using more trays, explained one CISF official.
The CISF has also cancelled leave of its personnel, including weekly offs after complaints from passengers forced Mr. Scindia to step in.
The BCAS has also raised the issue of retail space at the IGI Airport consuming a good part of its real estate and being a hindrance for passenger movement as well as posing a potential security risk in case of an evacuation, and issued an order to airports recently, asking them to adhere to the laid-down rules. “We will soon be inspecting these areas too,” the BCAS official said.
Published - December 13, 2022 10:23 pm IST
