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Journalism of Courage
Business tycoon Harsh Goenka shared a clip from the Bengaluru International Airport tweeted by Grammy award-winning composer Ricky Kej and asked whether the city can truly be an international IT or commerce hub. The clip shared by Kej showed hundreds of people standing in queue for immigration.
“Scenes in immigration in the Bengaluru airport early this morning. Can we truly be an international I.T. or commerce hub, if we welcome our visitors with this chaos?” Asked Goenka, the chairman of RPG Enterprises.
Kej, who recently attended the Cannes Film Festival in France, shared the clip last weekend. The composer termed the state of immigration as pathetic and said he had been in the queue for an hour.
“Pathetic state of immigration at the Bengaluru International Airport. Been in line for over an hour now. Currently well over 1000 people waiting, not all counters working, staff is clueless, inefficient. @BLRAirport Why have so many flights, when there is no capacity? @kiranshaw,” tweeted Kej.
Kej also elaborated on the reason the immigration process was taking a long time. “Number of lines to enter Bengaluru, India @BLRAirport 1) Air Suvidha check 2) Immigration 3) Check if immigration stamp is accurate (Not joking, this is another line) 4) Baggage screening -Customs 5) Collecting bags 6) Customs may do additional screening STEPS can be reduced!” he wrote.
Meanwhile, many users said the situation is similar in many other countries, including developed ones. Taking note of that, Kej responded saying we pat our backs if we manage to be second to worst. “I see a lot of comments naming some other country immigration as being worse than Bengaluru. Our mindset needs to change. We are comfortable with ourselves if we are not the worst! Haha.. we pat our backs if we manage to be second to worst. Why not try and be among the best?” commented Kej.
A user, while responding to Harsh Goenka, shared his experience at the London airport. “While operational efficiency, convenience and time saving are good for anyone, three weeks back I got my turn for visa stamp in London Heathrow after 2 hour sand 20 minutes and I was the first one to step out from the plane. And had paid Rs. 68k for visa fee,” he wrote.
Another user raised the need to improve the condition at the airport. “Absolutely. Airport authorities of India should send their officials to Dubai airport to learn how to manage millions of visitors efficiently without noise,” commented the user.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the Executive Chairperson of Biocon Limited, tagged Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai while sharing Kej’s clip. Shaw wrote, “We need to outsource immigration services based on technology.”
After the resumption of international flights to and from India in March, this year, the Kempegowda International Airport has been witnessing an increase in daily international departures. The airport reinstated more than 90 per cent of routes of the pre-Covid times, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) said earlier.
