Delhi Airport Chaos: Indian capital city airport working without offs since October

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

The security personnel of Indian capital city airport, Delhi airport security personnel working without offs since October, leaves cancelled amid chaos.

The security personnel deployed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) have not been provided their weekly offs for the last two months, according to Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) sources.

Moreover, the leaves of CISF personnel and jawans deployed at terminal T3 of IGI Airport are cancelled in the wake of the mess, chaos and overcrowding at the airport. The CISF personnel deployed at Delhi airport have not been given weekly offs since October.

The leave ratio has been reduced to 1.6 per cent instead of the present average of 14 per cent, the sources said. Earlier, 14 CISF personnel out of 100 could be on leave at a time, but that has been slashed to one person as the Delhi airport struggles to handle the rush of travellers during this holiday season.

The CISF also had to deploy personnel on administrative duty for security roles at Terminals 1,2 and 3 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

In view of the increasing crowds at the airport in the last few days, 60-80 additional CISF personnel have been deployed at the airport.

Passengers have been complaining on social media about Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) being a mess and overcrowded these days. Several passengers took to social media to complain about the long queues outside the airport and even at the security.

Amid complaints of overcrowding, chaos and long queues by the netizens, Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia paid a surprise visit to Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), Delhi, on Monday morning.

Highway on My Plate (HOMP) show host Rocky Singh was one of the complainants among them. He wrote “welcome to hell” with the picture of a really long queue at the security.

Other complainants include Straits Times’ US Bureau Chief and author Nirmal Ghosh. He took to Twitter to complain about the chaos and long waiting hours. “Utter chaos at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport with fights breaking out. 3 hrs from curbside to clearing security,” Ghosh wrote.

Amid recent complaints by passengers of overcrowding and congestion at Delhi airport, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) have drawn up a four-point action plan to be implemented as an immediate remedial measure.

These include enhancing the number of X-Ray screening systems from 14 to 16 at the airport. The authorities are also working on progressively reducing the number of peak hour departures from the current 19 to 14 flights at Delhi airport’s Terminal 3.

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