Mumbai Airport Chaos: Queue Monitoring, on-Ground Coordination Among Key Steps Announced

In light of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Mumbai seeing chaos and passenger overflow on Wednesday, the airport authorities have released some “passenger-centric” key initiatives to manage it. Authorities have invested in infrastructure upgradation to resourcefully support the growing passenger volumes, CSMIA said in a statement.

The move was prompted by passengers who took to Twitter to share their ordeal, posting photos and videos of the long queues. Videos of passengers cheering when a person manages to make it through the line have also emerged.

Here are some of the key initiatives, as proposed by CSMIA:

1. A passenger flow and queue monitoring system will be introduced, which is a digital tool used by the Operations team to closely look at passenger footfalls in Security Processing Zone.
2. On-ground terminal operation teams will be deployed at the pre-security checkpoints. The move will ensure the removal of restricted articles and reduce the rejection rates at Automated Tray Retrieval System (ATRS).
3. A host of staff will be deployed at the end of the ATRS machines to ensure quick turnaround for security trays.
4. Terminal Duty Managers will be present at security checks for managing the queues and to prioritize senior citizens and passengers holding children. CISF will also help coordinate.
5. Given that Immigration and Customs are sovereign functions, active on ground coordination will be in place for queue management and resource mobilization.
6. Terminal operations team are deployed at the immigration hall to guide the passengers to designated counters.
7. Customer Service Executives will be deployed at the curbside for proactive passenger assistance, managing queues at the entry gates and PRM assistance.
8. Terminal Operations team will be deployed at Self baggage drop kiosks to decongest the traditional check in counters.
9. In the event of sudden passenger surge, passengers will be prioritized as per departure timings.

Passengers said that the airport had 24 to 30 immigration counters in the international arrival lounge, but several of them were empty, leading to long hours for clearances. The international arrivals have to go through a biometric identification system but some of the scanners were generating errors, forcing them to re-scan several times.

Mumbai airport officials reacted to the developments saying immigration and customs are central agencies and they cannot interfere in the allocation of personnel if passenger volume increased.

Earlier this month, chaos and long queues were also seen at terminal T3 of the Delhi airport. The congestion led to long waiting hours for passengers and many of them complained about the situation on social media.

Against this backdrop, all agencies concerned took action, including increasing the number of security personnel at the gates, to reduce the congestion amid rising domestic air passenger traffic.

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