MHA convenes high-level meet over Delhi Airport chaos

New Delhi, Dec 15: The Ministry of Home Affairs chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday amidst complaints of overcrowding and chaos at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Reports said that the meeting would discuss immigration and infrastructure and the same would be convened by the Union Home Secretary.

The meeting began at 11 am at the North Block. The Civil Aviation Secretary, senior officials of the Delhi International Airport Limited, Director General of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Intelligence Bureau (IB) Chief, Chairman of the Airport Authority of India (AAI), senior officers of Immigration Department, officers of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and other officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs were present at the meeting.

Passengers have for the past couple of days posted on Twitter their grievances regarding the chaotic scenes at the Delhi Airport. Many have pointed pictures of long queues at the security checkpoints. Passengers have also complained that they had to wait for two to three hours in the clearance area before the final departure of the flight.

Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia had made a surprise visit to the airport following which steps had been taken to ease the congestion at Terminal 3. A five point plan was put in place covering all areas- entrance, check-in area, security check, immigration. A reduction and shifting of peak hour flights between 5 am to 9 am from T3 to T2 and T1 was also proposed.

At the meeting to be held today, a decision is likely to be taken on the deployment of an additional 1,200 CISF personnel at the Delhi airport. Currently over 5,000 CISF personnel are deployed at the Delhi Airport. They help the passengers with security check-ins, anti-terrorism and other core duties. The CISF is in charge of airport security.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation said that check-in counters left unmanned by airlines were leading to the congestion at the major airports across the country.

"Airlines are therefore advised to deploy sufficient manpower at all check-in/baggage drop counters well in advance to ensure decongestion and smooth flow of passengers at airports," the Ministry said in a letter.

"It has come to the notice of the MoCA that the airline check-in counters at certain airports are found unmanned or inadequately manned during the early morning hours leading to congestion at the airports, thereby causing inconvenience to passengers," the Aviation Ministry also said.