Delhi Airport Chaos: Centre in Action, 5 New X-ray Machines at T3; IndiGo's New 'Arrival Time' Notice

A major reason behind the ease in congestion at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 is the five X-ray machines installed at the security-check area in the last nine days, Aviation Minister Scindia said on Friday.

In a tweet on Friday morning, the Union Minister of Civil Aviation said, “Within 9 days, @DelhiAirport has installed 5 x-ray machines at the security-check area, taking the total to 18 ATRS/x-ray machines — a major reason behind ease in congestion at T3.”

Earlier today, the Delhi Airport said that the average passenger wait time at terminal gates was 1-3 minutes. At 10:43 am, “smooth passengers movement observed at all terminal entry gates with an average waiting time of 1-3 minutes,” it said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, IndiGo has amended its airport advisory and has asked travelers to arrive at the Delhi airport 2.5 hours in advance. The airline had earlier this week advised its passengers to arrive at least 3.5 hours in advance so as to not miss their flight.

The airline also advised passengers to carry only one piece of hand baggage weighing not more than seven kgs and suggested using gate numbers 5 and 6 for entry at T3 as they are nearest to the IndiGo check-in counters.

To further ease congestion, the Centre has decided to deploy additional Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and immigration officers, as well as more scanning equipment, as per a Hindustan Times report on Friday. An official said the Union home ministry has sanctioned 1,400 more CISF personnel for the three terminals at the IGI airport, the report stated.

Meanwhile, K Narayan Rao, Deputy Managing Director of Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) on Thursday met the Parliament committee of Civil Aviation and explained that the primary reasons behind the congestion were a spike in passengers and baggage.

He said the problem will be solved by December-end. Speaking to CNN-News18, Rao said, “I assured the parliament committee that measures to tackle the congestion problem have begun, and the problem was mainly caused by a spike in number of passengers and baggage. We can expect things to be better by month-end.”

For some time now, air passengers have been complaining of long queues and overcrowding at the entrance as well as security queues at T3. Delhi Airport authorities were on Thursday asked by the Central government to demolish structures if needed, so as to create more space for security gates. “The CISF office in T3 has been demolished. In its place, more ATRS (assisted tray retrieval system) are being installed,” a senior CISF officer said.

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.

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