Shifting of domestic flights may cause jams

New Delhi: When domestic operations start from the integrated terminal 3 (T3) on October 30, about 70% of domestic traffic would be moving to the new terminal. While three roads will take passengers up to the Haj terminal — NH-8, the tunnel road that will be made operational by this month-end and the road from Gurgaon — only one road from that point will lead to the main terminal, posing a traffic nightmare.
A team from the civil aviation ministry led by joint secretary Alok Sinha inspected operations at the airport on Tuesday. According to sources, officials pointed out that traffic chaos would possibly result after domestic operations of the three main carriers — Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher — shift to T3. ''The tunnel road will open with only two lanes at present and that should not be a problem. However, just after the Haj terminal, when all traffic would be pushed onto one road, traffic jams will be a huge issue,'' said sources.
Sources also said that while everything was on schedule at the domestic side of the terminal, the entire airport experience will be marred if issues like traffic are not sorted out. The first four gates at T3 will be dedicated to domestic carriers and officials are worried that the beginning of the ramp would always be crowded and hold up other traffic. A meeting is likely to be convened between Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) and traffic police on October 25 to formalise a traffic plan.
20/10/10 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

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Categories: airports Oct 2010