Staff detain Begumpet airport director

Hyderabad: In a clear indication of turbulent times ahead, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Begumpet, employees on Tuesday ‘confined’ airport director R K Singla to his cabin for over five hours. As a result of the holdup, he missed the all-important trial run at the upcoming greenfield airport in Shamshabad.
As part of a nationwide protest against closing down of existing airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore, around 60 employees from different departments of the Begumpet airport, completely blocked the passageway on the first floor of the airport administrative wing, where the airport director’s cabin is located.
Singla was supposed to be at the Shamshabad airport to oversee the trial run and also to receive Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel and other high-profile people attending the trial run of the Hyderabad International Airport. However, Singla failed to gauge the mood at the Begumpet airport and went to his cabin as usual at around 10 am. Trouble began immediately, soon the employees blocked the exit passage.
At around 12.30 pm, Singla once stepped out of his cabin to assess the situation, but seeing the belligerent staff he beat a hasty retreat as the protesters started shouting slogans.
The entire staff, including the emergency fire service department, went on a one-day strike. However, aircraft movements at the airport were carried out without any alert.
13/02/08 Times of India

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Categories: airports Feb 2008