And this one goes about my port of entry in India during this journey- the New Delhi International Airport, also known as the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
To start off, I should confess that the roads leading to this airport are much better than the roads leading to the Sahar International Airport in Bombay. (Infact the last time I went to India- jan 2004- it took me 2 hours just to get out of this area adjoining the airport called Santa Cruz in bombay). But my comparison should be with the international and not the national airports. So here we go.
The impression you get of this airport depends upon whether you are departing or arriving. Well if you are departing then you have some luck for the experience is not very bad, just bad. But if you are arriving.. well then ..eh.. I had like you to politely reconsider any expectations you might harbour about this airport. No expectations are strongly recommended.
Arrival
This airport can boast of one of the least secured, most dirty and the rudest (un)support staff you can find anywhere else in the world (excluding the indian airports- they are in a dirty league of their own). I could not believe my eyes the first time I arrived in Delhi.
The ordeal went something like this: The plane ’’parks’’ at a gate. Apparently the ground staff discovers that this parking is wrong and so asks the pilot to re-park. I had never had an experience of a plane taxing while all passengers are standing and waiting for the doors to be opened. Not before this time. Well so once the doors were thrown open, we went through the customs/immigration check.
The guy sitting at the immigration desk through which I eventualy passed looked like a pan-chewing babu. His way of recognizing people was as follows: he would take your passport look at your name and read it out loudly. I wonder if he had some undiscovered disease or was still practising his pronounciation so that he could teach his toddlers back home later.
Well anyhow, when my turn came he shouted my name also. He asked me if I was the person in the photograph in my passport. I almost wanted to say that it was our PM instead.
So once this done, we waited for the luggage on the convereyer belt. It turns out that at the most happening airport in the country you have to wait for more than 30 minutes for your luggage- bombay is a lot worse. Great going.
I can also recall another incident (though this hardly has to do anything with the airport rather more with the ground staff). So we were in this queue for immigration check where you get this form to fill out and hand it over to this official. I was right behind an arabic person who unfortunately didn?t speak any english. He kind of gesticulated to me if he had the right form to fill. I showed him that on top of the form it was written in bold letters ?For Indian Nationals Only?. Anyhow our man is happy and approaches the immigration desk.
On reaching the desk he gives his passport and the form to this official. The official says that he should fill another form instead. This new big-a@s form was like twice as big as the one indians had to fill. The arabic guy looked back at me as if it was all my fault and I was grinning ear-to-ear. I mean I couldn?t help it, though I know it wasn?t right.
The above goes to show that we hardly have any support staff on the ground who could help you with any stuff.
This is so abysmal specially considering the fact that the tourist who comes from abroad gets the first impression depending on how the arrival lounge is. It?s a different story though that we don?t have any lounge at all, just an arrival desk.
Departure
Now this is not that bad. Just bad, as pointed earlier. Well, so you get in the queue for check-in. It takes two to three days to get checked-in and I don?t mean this literally.
The exchange counters inside the airport are kind of unsupportive. They are busy counting Dollar bills and would heed you a couple of minutes after your arrival at the exchange counter window. Further, there are not many shops inside the airport where one could do quality duty-free shopping. Just a couple or amybe three is all I remmember. Compared to other international airports this is a trifle.
I would say that the departure lounge and all are quite ok but for the toilets. Now I have absolutely no idea as to why the ground staff can?t help keep this clean. The cleanliness and the hygene of a place can be gauged by the toilets and our airports fail miserably in this area. Sorry to say that not a lot has been done in this direction, and God only knows that with no privatization in view, when will the management improve.
What could be done
Ofcourse the best way to improve the airport is to lease out atleast the general management to some private firm who greet passengers with a smile and not a smirk. They should be professional enough to realise that they are serving and not getting served. That?s some attitude shift that perhaps is going to take time to sink into the ones sitting in those seats right now.
Further, the airport arrival needs to be fully renovated. It looks like some make-shift refuge camp- in other words simply pathetic. It would really be cool if the standard of the arrival lounge/arrival can be even facelifted to that of the departure one.
The final step in renovating the whole airport is not going to take any less than 3-4 years, that is if it starts at all. Atleast the kind of impression we get in the airport should not be worse than a prelude of what people experience outside once they are swarmed by the taxi-drivers. And this is one thing that needs serious rectification. Once you have arrived there are three (this is what I remmember from my visit this june) taxi counters who would invite you as if they owe you a ride. After all if the government is managing all the taxis as pre-paid, then how and why have these private family businesses been allowed to set up stalls inside the airport? And moreover they charge 1.5-2 times the actual taxi-fare.
At the end I should nevertheless add that there was a perceptible improvement in the airport, in general, this time (2004) when I visited, as compared to 2002 when I was there the last time. Hopefully with time better sense and management shall prevail.