Passengers traveling by flights in India may soon get relief from long immigration lines at airports. Currently, passengers at Delhi and Mumbai airports are facing the biggest problem of long queues at immigration. The Union Home Ministry held a meeting on the issue on Thursday. Because international traveling passengers are continuously sharing posts on social media complaining about the problems faced by immigration.
According to accounts of passengers, the immigration process takes longer due to unmanned counters. Late last year, airport sources had said that India had then started taking biometrics (fingerprints) of foreigners arriving here, but the immigration software was yet to be updated.
Long queues have been seen at immigration counters at the second busiest Indian airport, Mumbai, since late last year. At the same time, this problem has been seen recently in the country's busiest airport, Delhi's IGIA.
Travel industry internal sources are expecting growth in international travel this summer. They hope that the immigration issues at the affected airports will be resolved at the earliest after the intervention of the Home Ministry. Immigration and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) are the 2 major agencies at the airports - under the MHA.
Union Home Secretary AK Bhalla on Thursday reviewed the issues related to immigration at Delhi Airports. The focus was mainly on Terminal 3, where immigration is taking longer than the ideal waiting time.
The meeting was attended by all stakeholders, including officials from Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Central Industrial Security Force.
A source told that the government is preparing to cut down the waiting time for immigration at major airports. Keeping in mind that India is emerging as a major market and arrival-departures at airports are bound to increase. The focus has been on matching the growth in air traffic with the infrastructure, layout, security check process and immigration management of airports.
