 "As air-traffic zooms, Indian airports need thousands more staff, says study")
As more and more people take flights and the network of airports grows in the country, there will be greater demand for security personnel and immigration staff at airports, Mint has reported, citing an aviation ministry study. Capacity expansion is necessary to avoid the long hours of inconvenience for passengers, similar to what was seen at the beginning of the year.
As many as 3,800 more Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and 440 more immigration staff are required to cater to just eight airports, the report said, citing the study. The study evaluated the metro airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai, along with those located in Bagdora, Indore, Jammu and Srinagar.
The aviation ministry had sought inputs from these airports about the status of their operation and preparations for the peak travel season. This was done as part of the study that was started earlier this year, the Mint report said.
A government official aware of the matter told Mint, “In line with the shortage identified, the Civil Aviation Ministry and other stakeholders are working to deploy additional manpower by CISF in two phases by October and by November. The staff reinforcement from the Bureau of Immigration is expected to start by October."
Earlier this year, the airports struggled to handle the surge in traffic. As people stood in long queues outside, the airports were flooded with frustrated passengers. This resulted in several complaints being lodged, prompting Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to step in to provide relief.
To prevent a similar situation, airport officials held several rounds of discussions with the representatives of the ministry to identify the challenging areas and suggest stop-gap arrangements.
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The study found that the Delhi International Airport, which currently has 4,800 CISF security personnel deployed, needs 1,300 more. Apart from this, IGI also needs staff to handle 40 additional immigration counters beside the 100 operational now, the Mint report said.
The study found a similar trend for the Mumbai airport, which is the second busiest airport in the country and concluded that the airport needs staff for more than 50 immigration counters besides 150 additional CISF security personnel.