The Indian aviation sector was faced with an unprecedented crisis in the past two days, with over 600 flights delayed for long periods and nearly 80 flights cancelled in the nation’s largest aviation hub of New Delhi alone. The stranded passengers across airports fumed in anger and this led to violence and other embarrassing situations. The main reason for the disruption is stated to be the thick blanket of fog enveloping Delhi and the northern regions, which is partly a natural phenomenon and partly caused by environmental issues, all of which are well-known. The scenario was made more critical by the fact that only one of the four runways in Delhi was operational, and the others have been under maintenance work. Reports are also that there were other technical snags at the airport, including the absence of systems like the Instrument Landing System (ILS) on all the runways. This system guides pilots in times of low visibility. There could be other operational reasons too, all of which could be known only through a detailed investigation. The fact of the matter is the disruption has been massive, and its impact on the passengers was huge. If tempers ran high, it was only to be expected.
Those who travel by air or by rail are often faced with situations of a lack of clarity as to what is happening in relation to delays, whether they are arrivals, or departures, or halts midway through the journey as in the case of railways. In these times of excellent communications systems, it is often that the operational heads prefer to remain silent, keep passengers guessing, rather than informing them as to what was going wrong and where, and how long the delay could last. Railways have some such systems at stations, but the airports may not necessarily explain matters and keep the passengers guessing. This happens when a train is halted due to unforeseen circumstances like an accident. Even express trains have no system in place to inform passengers on board as to what went wrong. This is the height of irresponsibility, but all administrative mechanisms in this country manage to escape scot-free from such erroneous approaches.
When Narendra Modi started his rule as Prime Minister in 2014, he had promised a scenario of bullet trains crisscrossing the country. There is only marginal improvement to the railways. This at a time when China is experimenting with trains that run at a speed of 1000 km per hour. Airports in India have improved over the years, but the process was not taken forward with much vigour, as is evident in the present plight of the Delhi airport.
