Why Delhi airport's T3 has been an obstacle course
PremiumEvery winter, there is a variation of generalized airport management breakdown in the Indian capital, especially on account of its perennial fog that used to disrupt landings in the past
Anyone reading about the chaos at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, or worse, experiencing the torture of its queues, might be reminded of the famous quote, “It’s déjà vu all over again." Every winter, there is a variation of generalized airport management breakdown in the Indian capital, especially on account of its perennial fog that used to disrupt landings in the past (till systems were eventually upgraded) and traffic bottlenecks at drop-off points and on the road from the terminal to closeby Gurugram. But this applies more generally to India’s urban (and rural) infrastructure.
Arvind Singhal, head of Technopak Consulting, points out that no sooner is infrastructure built than it is severely crowded. In private management of airports, there might be an advantage in serially underestimating traffic, because, as with toll roads, the company bidding for the deal is likely seeking to make the most competitive bid possible. But in the government’s bureaucracy, Singhal says, “the problem is not only resources, it is a lack of imagination about the future."
Of all the officialese bandied about to explain the debacle of people queueing for hours at T3, the most comic was that because it was winter, people were travelling with jackets and this necessitated a greater use of security-check trays; Indian airports usually require separate trays for computers, phones and bags. Travellers to places closer to the Arctic circle in the US, Canada or Europe in winter would have been forgiven for being baffled by this nonsense. The other was that airline check-in queues were unmanned and under-staffed. My anecdotal observation from having flown to Delhi last week was that, as ever, the airline staff in India are among the most plentiful, as well as patient, in the world. This is partly because a much higher proportion of travellers arrive at check-in counters without having used web check-in facilities. Few use the machines that generate baggage tags, almost mandatory now globally from London to Sydney.
The truth is the problem lies elsewhere. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is lethargic and probably under-manned. It is also quixotic in its approach to security. The world-beating Indian security stamping of our hand baggage tags is thankfully behind us, but what requires a separate tray differs in India from airport to airport.
But, the real handicap may be chronic underinvestment in capacity and technology. The problem is not that Indians alone wear jackets and sweaters in winter, but that our X-ray machines are outdated, just as our landing systems used to be, and it’s unclear how well the promise of facial recognition via the DigiYatra app, reportedly adopted by T3 in early December, is working out for airport security.
A senior official in the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security told The Hindu this week that we need modern machines that use computer tomography “to produce 3 D images with a higher resolution." I close my eyes and use yogic breathing to stay calm in Indian security queues, but you could have knocked me over with a boarding pass at this revelation of the obvious. “The initial BCAS deadline for installing them was March 2020," reported The Hindu, “but it has been extended multiple times." The article ended with this insight: “(The deadline) now stands pushed to December 2023."
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As Singhal and many others point out, the real issue is that we have a generalist bureaucracy entrusted with navigating a complex world that requires domain specialization. Alleged tit-for-tat visa delays for British tourists by our government to retaliate against actions by the UK, lifted only weeks ago, was taken without any regard for the damage it caused bookings for Indian hotels and travel companies from Rajasthan to Kerala. Never mind that tourism is the world’s most labour-intensive industry, with multiplier effects for low-skilled labour demand. Sejoe Jose, who runs Marvel Tours, a travel company in Kerala, reports that till the end of November, foreign bookings for travel to Kerala was running at 30% of pre-pandemic levels. The UK is India’s biggest source market, especially when one deducts those of Indian origin visiting family in India. With the resumption of e-visas for the UK and Canada recently, Jose believes that huge pent-up demand from the UK in particular will see foreign bookings reach 45% of pre-pandemic levels by 31 March 2023. As winter approached, there was also some clarity at last about whether 5-year and 10-year tourist visas to India for Americans and others would be honoured after they had been cancelled during the pandemic. This week’s news is that India’s tourist offices are being closed around the world.
Delhi’s T3 has always been an obstacle course. Singhal points out that its departure drop-off points were not designed to cope with the fact that Indian families usually see off relatives in large numbers. This week, Jet Airways’ CEO Sanjiv Kapoor tweeted about major bottlenecks as passengers departing the airport headed for National Highway 48 to Gurugram and posted videos of trucks parked haphazardly on the road, as if they were left by Martians. Delhi traffic police responded by saying the concerned traffic inspector was “looking into the matter." While authorities take their time looking into this (or wisely navigating VVIP queues), I am ashamed to report I cancelled a flight out of T3 on Monday morning and booked one (at some expense) from T1 the same afternoon.
I have postponed my December travel plans, but happy holidays everyone!
Rahul Jacob is a Mint columnist and a former Financial Times foreign correspondent
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