The airport authorities have created lanes for vehicles in front of the departure area of the domestic section of the terminal building and set up dedicated toll booths to reduce congestion on the premises.
An official of the airport said the congestion had reduced to a large extent since the measures came into effect a few days ago. The Telegraph takes a look at the two measures.
Separate lanes
Guardrails have been placed in front of the terminal building at the departure level (domestic section) of the airport. Three lanes have been created for vehicles to stop and drop passengers booked on outbound flights.
“The space in front of the terminal gates started witnessing huge congestions since a post-pandemic rise in the number of flights and passengers. Creation of lanes for vehicles on the departure level is expected to ease the congestion,” said an official at the airport.
Around 400 flights take off from and land at the airport daily on an average, the official said. Of these, 350 are domestic flights, which means 175 domestic flights take off daily.
The official said 20,000 to 25,000 passengers take flight from the airport daily.
Guardrails marking lanes have not been put up in front of the international departure section because there are only a few flights and the timings are staggered, officials said.
“Vehicles that came to drop passengers often got stranded in front of the terminal because other cars would stop haphazardly. To prevent such chaos, we have created the lanes,” said another official of the airport.
“There are three lanes. One lane is for vehicles dropping passengers in front of gate 1A/1B, another for vehicles dropping passengers in front of gate 2A/2B and the third for cars whose passengers need to get off in front of gate 3A/3B.”
Personnel hired by the private agency that runs the airport’s parking lot are asking vehicles to move if they stand too long.
All cars entering the airport are issued entry tickets with the time mentioned on it.
The vehicles that are not going to the parking lot are allowed to stay on the airport premises for seven minutes, said an official. After that a car is liable to be fined Rs 500.
“A car can remain parked in front of the terminal for three minutes. Many cars cannot move even after the passengers get off because of the congestion. This was creating problems for passengers,” said the official.
Dedicated booths
Earlier, cars bound for the departure and arrival levels as well as those going to the parking area would have to queue up at the same booths.
That was another reason for the congestion on the airport premises.
“Now, we have created dedicated booths for arrival, departure and parking areas at the spots where the vehicles are approaching each area,” said the official.
