The Union government has taken several initiatives for better crowd management at airports across the country, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told Parliament on Thursday.
Putting up clear and appropriate signage, ensuring optimum utilisation of available resources, and adjusting flight schedules were among strategies adopted by the government to manage the crowd, he said.
Scindia listed the measures while responding to a query in the Lok Sabha by Bahujan Samaj Party’s Ritesh Pandey, who sought to know if the “government proposes to facilitate better crowd management practices across airports which helps the passengers to travel without frequent postponements leading to time saving”, and asked for details of the plans.
In a written response, Scindia said efforts have been made for optimum utilisation of available resources, like shifting “chairs and manpower from non-peak areas to peak areas” between arrival and departure points.
“Q-Managers have been placed for organised passenger processing. Airlines have been advised to deploy additional manpower at Common Use Self Service kiosks and check-in areas for fast processing,” Scindia said.
The government has also adjusted flight schedules to manage the crowd during peak hours, the minister added.
“Additional X-BIS (X-ray baggage inspection systems) machines have been provided as per requirement at airports to reduce congestion and the ministry of home affairs has been requested to provide adequate CISF manpower to man X-BIS, entry gates, etc,” Scindia said.
{{/usCountry}}“Additional X-BIS (X-ray baggage inspection systems) machines have been provided as per requirement at airports to reduce congestion and the ministry of home affairs has been requested to provide adequate CISF manpower to man X-BIS, entry gates, etc,” Scindia said.
{{/usCountry}}In December, the Union government stepped in to improve the situation at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport after complaints poured in of long delays.
Airport functionaries attributed the delay to a host of issues, including security staff shortage and an increase in footfall due to the wedding season.
Scindia had asked the airport authorities to address the issues on a priority basis. He had also held several meetings and conducted surprise visits to monitor the crowd management at terminal 3 of the airport.
Meanwhile, Scindia also said that 63 passengers were placed on the No-Fly list in 2022.