NEW DELHI: Following reports of overcrowding and chaos at the Delhi airport during the last few days after the Omicron-related travel guidelines came into effect, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday intervened and asked the airport operator, the GMR group-led Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), to improve crowd management.
The aviation ministry officials said the minister held a meeting with officials of the Airports Authority of India, Bureau of Immigration and DIAL. The officials of Genestrings Diagnostics, the laboratory that carries out RTPCR testing at the Delhi airport, were also present.
Amid concerns over Omicron, the Centre had issued a revised guideline for international travellers which came into effect on December 1.
Meanwhile, Delhi airport said that it has updated testing capacity at international arrival with the deployment of 120 Rapid PCR machines, taking hourly capacity to 500-600 per hour. Further, there is a provision for approximately 500 RTPCR tests per/hour. This additional capacity will make the international arrival process smooth, it said.
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Passengers have posted images from the airport in the last few days giving an impression of a crowded railway station. All passengers from ‘at-risk’ countries have to take a mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival. Passengers are having to wait up to 8 hours for the test result.