Air passengers walking towards the multi-level car parking area at the Chennai Airport on Monday.
| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ
Air passengers have been experiencing inconvenience ever since the cab pick-up points were shifted to the multi-level car parking at the Chennai airport.
One of the passengers, N.R. Vijay Kumar, 57, who returned to the city recently, recounts the ordeal of having to walk with heavy baggage to the multi-level car parking to board a cab. “Passengers carrying multiple baggage will be exhausted by the time they board a cab. It is a disorganised and disappointing arrangement. Passengers just queued up and followed each other, but essentially, most of us didn’t know where we were headed,” he said.
Officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the arrangement was not exclusive to Chennai airport. In some of the privately managed airports in the country, too, air passengers have to walk some distance to reach the cab pick-up points. They said persons with disabilities and senior citizens are allowed to be picked up in front of the terminals. “AAI is also adding more buggies to cater to the needs of arrival passengers. For those who need assistance, we have also set up a help desk and people can approach this counter for buggies to proceed towards the pick-up point,” an official said.
However, we are faced with a long queue upon reaching the multi-level car parking area, says Ashwin B., another air passenger. “As soon as we reach the parking area, we encounter a serpentine queue to enter the lift. Unfortunately, when I reached, the lift stopped working and we had to wait until it could be set right. Next to me in the queue was a woman with an infant, who was struggling to manage until she boarded a cab,” he said.
Balaji S., another passenger, said, “When it rains, the ordeal is going to worsen for those who have to board a cab.” Passengers have took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to express their displeasure with the new system.
Aside from the fact that it is tough for everyone to walk with baggage from the terminals to the car parking, passengers have flagged a few other issues as well. For instance, while buggy services have been operational to drop off passengers to the parking area, there aren’t adequate such vehicles or they are denied rides by the buggy drivers, they say. “I requested two buggy drivers to drop me off at the multi-level car parking, but they just refused,” Mr. Vijay added.
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