The lanes on the arrival level in front of the Kolkata airport’s integrated terminal are a study in chaos for most parts of the day, particularly late in the evening.
A section of airport officials blames it on faulty planning of the terminal building and lack of policing.
Over several days, Metro witnessed the chaos as vehicles stayed parked across the lanes, buses, which are not supposed to stop, called out for passengers, and VIP cars remained nonchalantly parked along the kerb.
On Thursday night, VIP cars were not the only ones flouting the norms. An air-conditioned government-run bus on the airport-Howrah route pulled up and parked on the kerbside for a little over 30 minutes. It left after taking in passengers.
“The buses have been told to pick up passengers from the terminus adjacent to gates 1A and 1B. They can stand for a couple of minutes in front of gates 1A and 1B and then leave. By no means these buses can stop in front of every gate,” said a senior official at the Kolkata airport.
As the kerbside was occupied by a row of VIP cars, private vehicles and app cabs were forced to form a second row and, often, a third.
Passengers, especially the elderly, took time to drag their luggage one by one to their cars. As a result, there were long queues of cars in all the lanes. Those behind, who
had finished loading their luggage, were honking to get clearance.
The vehicles desperately trying to find their way out of the web made it unsafe for passengers who were crossing the lane to reach the parking lot.
During the entire time, this newspaper found a couple of policemen walking up and down but doing nothing to ease the congestion.
Two elderly women booked an app cab outside the arrival terminal. As the car came, it was forced to park in a middle lane as the kerbside was occupied by VIP cars. The women dragged their luggage one by one.
“There should be a dedicated lane for VIP cars and the rest should be earmarked for non-VIP cars,” said one of them.
Another woman, part of a large group, was sitting on a trolley as other members seemed to be calling drivers.
“Our cars are in the parking lot. We asked the drivers to come up here. But seeing the chaos here, I was thinking that maybe walking to the parking lot would have been a better option,” said the woman. The group had returned to Kolkata from Bangalore.
An official of Omega Enterprises, which handles parking and lane management at the airport, said that often because of the chaos, private vehicles are stuck for more than seven minutes, the time allotted for a vehicle to stay on the airport premises free of charge.
“The drivers of such vehicles tell us that the VIP cars are staying parked for long and the traffic chaos is causing the delay. We slap fines on some vehicles but often we allow them to leave because the problems they cite are genuine,” said the Omega official.
He said often the lane adjacent to the parking lot that is allotted for commercial vehicles remains clogged by pre-paid and yellow taxis.
“So, commercial vehicles like app cabs and those hired from agencies by passengers or the ones provided by hotels for pick-up have no option but to enter the lanes meant for private vehicles,” he said.
An airport official pointed out that faulty planning was also responsible for the chaos.
“The Delhi airport (terminal 3) has 10 lanes for vehicles. There are kerbs separating the lanes and only designated vehicles are allowed in a particular lane. At the Kolkata airport, we have only five lanes,” the official pointed out.
“There is no scope to build kerbs. Also, because of the underground parking and
the landscape above it, there is no scope for extension of tthe canopy and the lanes,” he said.