Union minister of civil aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday visited the Delhi airport and met the officials amidst a sudden surge in the complaints of chaos and congestion at terminal 3. Over the past few days, several passengers took to social media regarding their woes of mismanagement, serpentine queues, and long waiting hours in the security and check-ins at the T3 of the national capital’s airport.
Speaking to the media, the union minister of civil aviation said that the authorities have studied and taken a summary of bottlenecks and that the central industrial security force has been directed to provide enough staff at the airport.
According to reports, as a remedial measure, the ministry of civil aviation and Delhi international airport have also implemented a four-point action plan. The government is also planning to reduce the flight departures at peak hours of 5:00 am to 9:00 am and 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm to 33, with 14 departures from the T3 terminal, 11 from the T2 terminal and eight from the T1 terminal. Moreover, the government has installed additional x-ray machines for checking baggage in the T3 terminal.
Several air travelers took to social media regarding their woes at the Delhi airport. The users also shared images of the serpentine queues. For example, professional tennis player Riya Bhatia tweeted on Friday, “Been here from last 30 minutes and still not halfway through the security check line on T3, @DelhiAirport What is going on? @AAI_Official help please #help #airports #waiting.”
Another passenger Rajesh Sawhney tweeted on Friday, “Boarding a flight from T3 in Delhi has become a nightmare...hours in security queues, tray fights and a whole lot is broken. Why can’t airports increase human/infra capacity to deal with the increase in traffic? @JM_Scindia @DelhiAirport.”
Arun Thapar, another air traveler tweeted today, “The state of #Terminal2 @DelhiAirport this morning. Only 2 Xray machines working!!! And the poster propagates false info - there is in fact no express check in for passengers with hand luggage! @JM_Scindia @ShereenBhan.”
The reports of chaos and congestion surfaced just days after the government launched DigiYatra app on December 1, for contactless, and seamless processing of passengers at Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi airports. The app is based on facial recognition technology. Scindia said that the project envisages a traveler passing through various checkpoints at the airports through paperless and contactless processing using facial features to establish the users' identity which could be linked to the boarding pass. To use this facility, one-time registration on Digi Yatra app is required using Aadhar based validation and a self-image capture.
Passenger’s ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet in the passenger’s smartphone, and the uploaded data will utilise blockchain technology and all the data will be purged from the servers within 24 hours of use.
However, several passengers including some national leaders tweeted that the app has been ineffective. For example, an air traveler Ramnivas Kumar tweeted on December 3, “Dear @JM_ScindiaJi, I was really excited to see the launch of #DigiYatra. Accordingly, I downloaded, linked with Aadhaar & completed all formalities. After reaching T3, I was told that #Digiyatra works after 10am. If this doesn’t work during rush hour then what’s the point?
On December 8, senior BJP leader Dr. Vijay Chauthiawale tweeted that the Digi Yatra has been non-functional at T3 terminal. His tweet said, “#DigiYatra non-functional at T3 @DelhiAirport @JM_Scindia."
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