The Delhi airport is one of the top 10 fastest airports in the world. Just this year alone it has flown 3,49,05,629 passengers from January to June. However, an aesthetic feature of the airport’s Terminal 3 has been one of the most discussed public installations in the Capital state.
170,000 square meters of flooring at the terminal are covered by a carpet that has been raising eyebrows ever since it was installed 8 years ago.
The brown carpet has been a hindrance to passengers who have complained over and over again about the difficulty of lugging their trolley bags or baggage trolleys over it.
One passenger had enough of it and tweeted about the dirty rugs to the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha and the Delhi International Airport Limited twitter handle:
@jayantsinha @DelhiAirport #T3 at Delhi needs massive makeover. Almost all passengers want the dirty rugs to go. Please, let us not fall prey to a sunk investment fallacy. It is very inconvenient and now, stinkingly smelly also, to walk to the boarding gates.
— Suyash Gupta (@suyashgupta) August 18, 2018
Urging for a much-required makeover for the terminal, the user continued:
Most good, busy airports across the world use hard flooring, as much as possible. Easy for passengers, easy for luggage, easy to clean and maintain. T3 @DelhiAirport needs an urgent upgradation. More intuitive signages and #FreeFromRUGs PLEASE!! @jayantsinha
— Suyash Gupta (@suyashgupta) August 18, 2018
The minister, who often follows up on passenger grievances on social media, backed his tweet asking DIAL to look into it:
@DelhiAirport please follow up https://t.co/59wlielgMh
— Jayant Sinha (@jayantsinha) August 18, 2018
Following the passenger’s and the minister’s tweets, DIAL announced yesterday that they have initiated the carpet replacement process:
Hi Suyash,
Thank you for the feedback. We have initiated the design and implementation process for the replacement of carpet with hard flooring in the passenger movement area along the piers in a phased manner.— Delhi Airport (@DelhiAirport) August 23, 2018
According to the Hindustan Times, a spokesperson said that the removal of the carpet will start in late October end and will be completed by the end of the year in phases.
The DIAL spokesperson said:
“We have proactively initiated the process of replacing the existing carpet with hard flooring in the passenger movement area along the piers in a phased manner.
We have chosen a solution which is designed for heavy passenger loads, as observed in airports. Post-completion, this will enhance the overall passenger experience, especially while dragging strollers in between the travellators (moving walkways). This work is likely to start before the end of October.”
This advancement is rather good news for all flyers who’ve dreaded taking their luggage through the carpeted floor. Now that the carpets are going out, happy flying people!