Paid porters on anvil at Kolkata airport

By bappaditya paul 

N S C Bose International Airport in Kolkata is all set to introduce paid porters to carry passenger baggage. The move will specially come handy for new and aged flyers travelling alone as the porters will double up as their guides inside the airport terminal.   At present, complimentary porter service is available only for VIPs or VVIPs at a few airports in the country.

According to NSCBI Airport director, Dr B P Sharma, the initiative is aimed at making the airport passenger friendly and the paid porters will be made available in a month or so.

“At the departure level, paid porters will carry the baggage in trolleys right from the main entry gates and up to the security checkpoints inside the terminal. As regards the arrival level, the porters will carry the baggage from the conveyor belt and up to the taxi or bus stop in front of the terminal, as a passenger desires,” said the airport director. “We are hiring a private agency to run the service. Though the charges are yet to be finalised, it will range between Rs 100 and Rs 200 per porter.”

Similar to railway stations, the porters will wait for passengers in front of the entry gates on the first floor of the airport terminal and near the conveyor belts on the ground floor. A passenger willing to avail the services of a porter shall have to make an approach on the spot; advance requisition is not required. A paid porter will not only carry the baggage of a passenger but also guide him/her to the airline-specific baggage X-ray scanners and the check-in counters. If the passenger concerned has cabin bags as well, the porter will carry it up to the security checkpoints. On rendering the service, the porter will collect his payment directly from the passenger. “In short, the porter will also act as a guide to flyers,” Dr Sharma elaborated.

The new passenger terminal at Kolkata airport is spread over 1.80-lakh square metre area housing both the international and domestic zones under a single roof. Flyers, especially aged ones and those flying for the first-time, find it difficult to access/reach the necessary facilities inside this large terminal while towing their luggage.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report was first published in The Statesman on 4 September 2014.)

Two montns on: retiring rooms at Kolkata airport new terminal still not ready

By bappaditya paul

The retiring rooms proposed for passengers at Kolkata’s N S C Bose International Airport new terminal are yet to be ready even as it is nearing two months since the terminal was made fully operational.

As a result fliers landing at the airport with connecting flights to catch are facing immense hardship; they are required to walk almost half a kilometre to access the existing retiring rooms located at the airport’s old international terminal building.

The new passenger terminal made fully operational on 15 March has provisions for 23 retiring rooms at arrival level. They are located at the arrival level mezzanine floor between the visitor’s area and security-hold; there is a stair and a lift aligned along gate number 3-C for accessing them.

A visit to the new terminal yesterday revealed that none of the 23 retiring rooms is ready yet ~ the ceiling, flooring and wall plaster works have not moved an inch, leave aside the furnishings. The airport management until now has only completed work for the attached washrooms. “If the work is expedited, still it would take at least two more months to make the rooms ready for occupancy,” said an official supervising the job.

N S C Bose Airport director, Mr B P Sharma, said they were in the process of commissioning the retiring rooms but he would not commit a specific deadline. “We’re in the process of awarding the tender for running the retiring rooms; the rooms will be handed over to some five-star hotel management who will operate them on lease,” Mr Sharma said.

The airport director said that in view of the delay, they were still running the old retiring rooms so that passengers were not inconvenienced. Located on the first floor of the old international terminal, there are six double-occupancy retiring rooms and a 14-bed dormitory that are allotted to transiting passengers for a charge ~ Rs 1,500 for a room and Rs 700 for a dormitory bed.

But the issue is that to access them, one has to walk almost half-a-kilometre from the new terminal. The distance is not long enough so cabs do not agree to ferry passengers and rickshaws are not allowed on the airport campus unless there’s a strike.

“Last week there was an occasion when a flier who landed here in the evening and had an early morning flight to catch had booked a retiring room in the old building. But he returned midway saying he felt scared to walk the distance; he spent the entire night sitting in the new terminal passenger lounge,” an airport official said accusing the management of being insensible to such plights.

(The author is on the staff of The Statesman, India. This report first appeared in The Statesman on 9 May 2013.)