Civil Aviation secy reviews T3 of Delhi Airport?s domestic operations

Civil Aviation Secretary M. Madhavan Nambiar on Monday reviewed the preparedness for starting of domestic operations of airlines from Terminal-3 (T3) of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here.

To ensure the least inconvenience to the passengers, it was decided at the review meeting that the domestic operations of the three airlines, Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines from T3 would begin from November 14.

A thorough review meeting was held with the representatives of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), concerned airlines, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Police, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The main issues, which concerned the authorities and resulted in the postponement of domestic operations from T3, included metro connectivity to airport that is expected to be in place by mid November.

Integration of Dwarka Underpass being executed by DDA and Northern Access being executed by DMRC is expected to be completed by the end of Oct, 2010. However, this connectivity requires to have trial operations and simulations to ensure smooth traffic flow by traffic police, which is expected by mid November.

Three lanes of Northern Access will be available by first week of November.

The traffic is also expected to increase during Diwali and to ensure maximum convenience to the passengers, it was decided to shift the operations to T3 on November 14.

A number of simulation exercises will be carried out during the period leading up to November 14 by all the stakeholders.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation will also review the entire preparedness during this period.