Kashmir alert: Heavy rush at Bengaluru Ariport

An Independence Day alert, amplified by a Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) caution, had the Kempegowda International Airport in a twister of passenger woes on Thursday morning. Hundreds of passengers were stranded for hours in long queues as frustrations mounted.

The limited space of Terminal 1 was packed with waiting passengers. At one point, the queues before the security gates on the first floor got so long that they extended to the ground floor entrance.

Frustrated by the long waiting time, many took to social media to articulate their woes. One of them, Felix Remedios tweeted: “Crazy Queues at Bangalore Airport. Queues running all the way from security on the 1st floor down to the entrance doors!!!! Looks like some major revamp in planning needed drastically.”

As the crowds swelled, the escalators had to be switched off. Said another passenger, Divya Shori pointing to a picture of the scene inside the terminal: “Bangalore airport this morning. No escalators working due to a high-security alert. Jammed-up with humans everywhere.. will I board my flight!!!?”

KIA’s operator, the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), could not immediately confirm about the escalator.

But a spokesperson attributed the rush to the heightened security in the wake of the BCAS alert. The alert was issued after the scrapping of Article 370 and 35A in
Kashmir.

An official statement from BIAL read: “Due to the heightened security measures, passenger screening has been intensified at the Pre-Embarkation Security Checks. As a result, there were delays in passenger processing, but all within acceptable limits.”