Mumbai airport

Nearly two years after a resolution was passed in the Maharashtra Assembly, Mumbai Airport has finally been renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji ‘Maharaj’ International Airport.

On Thursday, Union Ministry formally approved a request from the Maharashtra government to add ‘Maharaj’ to the name.

Union Aviation Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, confirmed this news by tweeting about it. He said that   Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is now Chhatrapati Shivaji ‘Maharaj’ International Airport and was very thankful to the current government for approving this decision. He also congratulated the people of Maharashtra via the tweet.

A demand to add the honorific was first made in 2016 by BJP MP Sambhaji Raje Chhatrapati, a descendant of the Maratha warrior king. Following that, the Maharashtra assembly passed a resolution to rename the airport and the railway station.

While Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) became Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus soon after, the proposal to rename Mumbai’s international airport was pending.

The airport’s renaming will mean that airport authorities will have to make a lot of changes, from informing the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to changing all the boards on the airport premises. The civic authorities will also have to change the signage on the city roads that lead to the international airport.

Mumbai airport is no stranger to changes in its name. Built to serve bombers of the Royal Air Force during World War ll , it was known as RAF Santacruz in the 1930s. Post-independence, it came to be known as Bombay International Airport.

In 1970, once the international travel started booming in India, the airport shifted its international operations to a new terminal near Sahara Village in Andheri. That terminal was referred to as Sahar International Airport, while the original Bombay International Airport came to be known as Santacruz Airport.

In 2006, the airport was privatized and the two terminals were collectively referred to as Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Mumbai.

Passengers flying from major Indian airports will have to take out their wallets, mobile phones, chargers and other electronic items from carry-on bags for separate screening.

Till now, only laptops and tablets were required to be kept in separate trays for screening at security but that is no longer the case.

According to Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials, while scanning handbags, the screen shows a lot of clutter inside it. This causes a lot of difficulty to the security personnel since they are not sure what is inside the bags.

In fact, in the past few days, security personnel have had to check oddly sized pens after cases of knives inside them had been reported. Also, people with gun licenses often bring bullets with them which has to be checked and removed manually.

The security personnel has to request the passenger to remove all electronic items if the security screen is not clear and if there is too much doubt, bags have to be checked manually, which slows down the processing time, leading to long queues.

The decision to remove all electronic items and wallets has been taken to speed up the handbag screening process without affecting the quality of checks.

The CISF will go ‘back to basics’, where they are going to put up a board at Pre-Embarkation Security Check (PESC) points reminding passengers to remove anything not allowed in aircraft that they may have forgotten by mistake in their handbags like scissors or knives.

Congestion at PESC is a major concern as most Indian airports since they have not added adequate infrastructure to support the 20 % growth in air passenger traffic in the past 4 years.

Since expanding existing terminals and building new airports takes years, aviation authorities are trying to incorporate technology to help Indian airports manage the growing traffic.

Airports Authority Of India(AAI) is looking into getting 3D luggage scanners which are currently being tested at the New York JFK and London Heathrow Airport. They don’t require passengers to take out laptops and other electronic items from the bags.

Kolkata airport handles about 50000 passengers a day. With flights scheduled between 6 AM and midnight, around 2,700 persons either arrive at or depart from the airport per hour. Luggage trolley is the first thing that a passenger looks for at the airport.

In a bid to provide better services to passengers during the upcoming festive season, Kolkata Airport has got a set of 600 new baggage trolleys at the airport.

The new baggage trolleys will help the airport manage the passenger rush at the airport during the Durga Puja and other upcoming festivals.

According to airport officials, the new consignment is part of a 4000 trolley-supply deal with a Mumbai based firms, Delite Systems Engineering Pvt Ltd.

Till now the company has supplied 3100 new trolleys, including the 600 which Kolkata Airport received on Saturday. The rest of the trolleys are expected to arrive by the end of 2018.

Here are a few salient features of the new trolleys –

• It has a rear wheel cover to prevent apparel such as “Dupattas” or longs scarves getting tangled in them.
• It is lighter than the previous trolleys
• It has a lower luggage platform which will increase the load capacity and make it more spacious
• Front wheels are designed in the shape of an aircraft’s nosewheel, making it agile and easy to move.
• Overall, it has a better design as compared to the old trolleys

At Kolkata airport, finding a trolley has been a problem, especially during busy hours or late at night. On top of that, Passengers have had to deal with poor customer service at the airport because of which the airport rankings have gone down.

Hopefully, with such initiatives, the passenger experience will improve, and the ratings of the Kolkata airport will go up. This move will also help the airport management to streamline the trolley system making it easier and smoother for them to handle.