'MESS' in Mangalore airport

“Airport is the first point of contact, to any international passenger or anybody visiting Mangalore via air route. Hence the airport is the mirror of the City. The new technology to clean the airport has been adopted for this purpose,” said Mangalore Airport Director M R Vasudeva Rao addressing the media persons after the inauguration of the MESS.

The tender to clean the airport has been given to Durga Facility Management Services Private Limited, Mangalore. The Rs 1.23 crore contract will be for a period of three years and Rs 33 lakh will be spent for cleaning the old terminal.

The work will be undertaken according to the ISO: 9001:2008 standards.Durga Facility management Services Private Limited Managing Director B S Shetty said that with the mechanised cleaning as much as 70 per cent of the work will be done by equipment and people will be appointed only to operate the machines

As many as 16 different types of chemicals will be used to clean different areas in the airport such as floor, glass and metal parts.

Hygiene will be the primary concern and dusters will be colour coded so that they can be used only for specific work.

A sum of Rs 30 lakhs has been spent on the cleaning machinery. The tender can be extended  by another two years if the work was satisfactory, claimed Shetty and addded that the  staff will be given a ‘Standard Operation Procedure’ to work and also a checklist will be prepared to ensure the work is done properly.

There will be three types of cleaning procedures such as regular, weekly and monthly, he said.The ‘Walk behind scrubber’ can clean 59,000 sq feet per hour, which is equal to six humans working and with the Hydrolic Jack a person can easily clean the roof, said Shetty introducing the machinery and added that safety of the workers is also taken care of.

Customer satisfaction
Vasudeva Rao informed that according to the Customer Satisfaction Survey, Mangalore airport has secured 79 in round I, 75 in round II, 83 in round III and 85 in Round IV. Lucknow airport has scored the highest in the survey with 90 points in round IV, he said and added that Mangalore has managed to be in the first two places in South India.