A board mentioning overstay charges for private vehicles put up at the arrival pickup zone at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.
Credit: DH PHOTO/PUSHKAR V
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Secretary Shalini Rajaneesh on Friday visited Kempegowda International Airport to address mounting passenger complaints over the airport’s new passenger pickup system.
During a review meeting with Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), officials explained that the four pickup zones with three lanes each — 12 lanes in total — outside Terminal 1 arrivals are designed to handle around 30 cars every 90 seconds.
However, until recently, nearly 100 vehicles were entering the space at a time, taking up to 10 minutes to clear. This mismatch led to chaos, artificial congestion and a sharp spike in passenger grievances, the BIAL management informed the top official, adding that the airport had reported a 100 per cent surge in complaints concerning the same issue through its feedback system.
Officials acknowledged that there was no effective mechanism to regulate the entry of private and commercial vehicles, worsening the bottleneck. The Chief Secretary was informed that, as per norms followed at national and international airports, private vehicles (white board) are allowed free access for pickups, while commercial vehicles (yellow board) are regulated and assigned dedicated zones. Commercial operators are required to pay an aggregator fee per trip.
BIAL also cited the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) guidelines, which prohibit parking facilities within 100 metres of the arrival gate. This stretch is to be declared a no-honking zone, with the police directed to take immediate action against violators.
For private car users parking at P4, the Chief Secretary directed BIAL to introduce a valet-based service to ensure vehicles can be brought to the arrival lanes within four minutes. Shuttle services, provided free of charge, now supplement the earlier 550-metre walkway, which already had escalators, travelators and EV buggies.
Around 20 BIAL staff have been deployed along walkways to assist passengers, including those with luggage, and new signage has been installed. Inter-terminal shuttle buses operate every five minutes, along with dedicated wheelchair-accessible vehicles for senior citizens.