NEW DELHI: Amenities for passengers at Delhi Airports, both national and international, leave much to be desired, despite International Airport Authority of India (IAAT) spending Rs 10 crore for its maintenance and upkeep every year,

Over-enthusiastic policemen, zealously guarding all entrances and exits do their utmost to make life miserable for a passenger who is in dire need of help or those who have come to see-off somebody.

The IGIA Airport which catered to 29.8 lakh international passengers during 1991-92, has virtually non-existent facilities for those who have come to receive or to see-off passengers.

Since entry to arrival and departure terminals is banned for major parts of the year due to security reasons, visitors have to brave it Out in extremes of climate.

There is no drinking water facility and public convenience for those wailing outside the domestic and international terminals. Only one water cooler and public convenience, tucked into a remote corner, at international terminal of IGIA Airport caters to thousands who come daily to see off nearly 8000 outgoing passengers.

According to airport officials, there is drinking water shortage during summer months and water tankers have to be frequently called in, Even the trolleys are in short supply as villages living adjacent to airport utilize them for carrying water and there is no one to check them.

The plight of those going on a domestic flight is worse. With the near non-existent air-conditioning and a single water cooler for the thousands of passengers arriving to board over 20 Nights, the situation is chaotic during peak hours when the waiting halls get overcrowded inside the airport on account of frequently delayed fights.

Harassed passengers have to queue up at the only two public phone booths. Only half the counters are manned and long serpentine queues with no cross ventilation in the absence of proper air-conditioning only lead to chaos.

The public conveniences are dirty and the passages leading to them are used by the cleaning staff for resting.

Since the office of duty manager is situated inside the airport, a passenger has to undergo undue harassment in case he is wait-listed or needs some flight information.

Harbans Kumar, Airport Director, said majority of problems occur when there is a flight delay or during peak hours of 11 pm to 5 am at international airports and from 5:40 am to 7:00 am and from 4 pm to 6 pm at domestic airports,

He said artificial congestion which strains the facilities at both the terminals is due to bunching of flights. Flights should be staggered and arranged so that they match up with the ground facility.

Airport sources said that multiplicity of authority is the sole reason behind poor ground facilities at the airport.

According to them, the police officials refuse to cooperate with the IAAI officials and passengers under the pretext of security.

Rude behavior of policemen manning the exits and entrances to the airport is another grievance of the passengers, a far cry from the tourist police deployed in South-East Asian countries, who go out of the way to help a passenger in distress.

Passengers blame the poor maintenance and over-crowding at domestic terminals to erratic flight schedule planning by the Indian Airlines. “IA flights never leave on schedule and the airlines does not even bother to inform the passengers about cancelled flights although they make tall claims about this facility,” said a passenger, “No one seems to be bothered about the common man.”

Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992