It will be a touch-free entry and exit for passengers once flight operations resume after lifting of the lockdown at Visakhapatnam International Airport. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) is making all arrangements to ensure safety of passengers.
Passengers have to wear masks. They can bring their own masks or purchase them at the stalls being opened at the airport. These stalls will also sell sanitisers and gloves. The AAI has entrusted the task of sanitising the airport, including offices and garden area, to the Central Warehousing Corporation.
Bar code reader
The security personnel have been provided with magnifying glasses to check ID cards and the ticket details on the mobile screen of the passengers from a distance, eliminating the need to take mobile into their hands. “The barcode reader will read the boarding pass and retrieve the information from the database unlike in the past when the boarding pass used to be put in a printer. Messages regarding the hand baggage will be sent to the mobile of the passenger and the same checked with the help of a magnifying glass in the security area,” Airport Director M. Raja Kishore said.
“Hand-held metal detectors will check the baggage to be put in the cargo hold. When physical checking of the baggage is required, the staff will wear gloves. There are a total of 600 seats in the security area on the ground and first floor, which can accommodate three flight loads of passengers,” he says.
Social distancing will be observed while allowing passengers through the aero bridges by sending 10 persons at a time, which will take about 15 minutes more for completion of boarding.
AutoCAD drawings have been requisitioned from Chennai to make markings both inside and outside the terminal building to ensure social distancing norms, when passengers queue up for security check. The queues at the check-in counters will be separated by glass enclosures to prevent transmission of virus.
Similarly, for incoming passengers, the loaders will fumigate the luggage, before loading it onto the conveyor belt. The passengers will be allowed to disembark the flight in groups of 30 to prevent overcrowding. The remaining passengers remain seated in the flight awaiting their turn.
“Trial runs will be conducted in a couple of days,” Mr. Raja Kishore adds.