The mess at Delhi International Airport (DIAL) is now under the scrutiny of none other than the cabinet secretary.
NEW DELHI: The mess at Delhi International Airport (DIAL) is now under the scrutiny of none other than the cabinet secretary.
K M Chandrasekhar has sought fortnightly reports on the progress of modernisation of the Delhi airport, just a few days after civil aviation minister Praful Patel and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia sparred publicly over the delay in completing modernisation work at DIAL.
While Ahluwalia laid the blame at the door of the airport developer, Patel did not hesitate to point out that the Planning Commission itself is partly responsible for the delay since its officials did not clear the modernisation proposal in time.
The cabinet secretary’s demand for continuous progress reports comes even as he is scheduled to chair a meeting of the National Facilitation Committee next week.
This committee comprises secretaries of civil aviation, finance, home and urban development and is meeting to take stock of the progress at international airports of Delhi and Mumbai on June 3.
During the course of this meeting, DIAL’s demands for manpower and other constraints would be considered.
A senior civil aviation ministry official pointed out that though a fortnightly progress report was a welcome step, it was hardly likely to hasten things at DIAL.
“Passenger traffic has grown way beyond our projections so that existing infrastructure is proving to be inadequate. The only solution is construction of the third terminal, which would be completed only in 2010 as per plan. Some improvements —- like enhanced manpower for immigration and security —- can be made but any major relief will come only by 2010.”
On its part, the GMR-led consortium has been blaming the current problems - serpentine queues which begin at the airport entrance and continue through baggage screening to immigration counters, besides lack of some basic passenger amenities - on manpower shortage and has already sought 1400 additional CISF personnel besides 150 more immigration officers from the government.
It says the airport is already handling twice the planned capacity of 12 million passengers annually.
But it is ironical that GMR’s assurance on improving things at DIAL comes even as it has begun discussions with the Civil Aviation Ministry on charging an Airport Development Fee (ADF) from each passenger soon —- Rs 1,000 for international departures and Rs 200 for domestic —- to bridge the Rs 2,750 crore funding gap this project is facing.
So, in effect, DIAL is asking passengers to pay for services it would provide only two years later.
GMR says several improvements would be made in Terminal 2 by June: 52 immigration counters for departure against 28; 100 check-in counters against 78; almost double the number of security channels to 15 and door frame metal detector gates from 10 to 22.
Also, to address complaints of long traffic jams on the approach to the airport, GMR has agreed to widen the drop off area by 18 feet, post traffic marshals and customer care executives to help with e-ticketing etc.
By August this year, Delhi will have the third runway operational, a refurbished international terminal would be available by July, a new domestic terminal would be added by November and a refurbished Haj terminal would also be operational by October.
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