Travellers to get breather with shorter immigration queue

KOLKATA: As the aircraft finally touched down in Kolkata, Arup Dutta beamed. The weariness of a gruelling 25-hour journey from Boston including a 6-hour layover at in Dubai disappeared. Returning home after nearly a decade's hiatus, the overwhelming feeling was one of nostalgia. Yet, an hour and a half later when he exited the airport, the excitement had vanished.Instead, he felt utter frustration.
In those crucial 90 minutes, there were several causes responsible for the change in his demeanor from euphoria to despair-dilapidated terminal building; shabby interiors, poor work culture. But what really left him fuming was the 45 minute queue at the immigration desk. Though the officers were courteous, the wait was too agonizing after a trans-Atlantic journey. "This is madness. Why can't there be more counters? And why do immigration officers take so much time to clear each passenger when it happens in a jiffy elsewhere?" wondered Dutta.
The 'terminal' issues are expected to be sorted out mid next year when operations shift to the new integrated terminal. But the bottleneck at the immigration desk may be resolved by the time Dutta takes the return flight in mid-January. With the immigration office in Kolkata set to connect with the rest of the world through the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) by January 1, 2012, queues at the immigration desk are expected to be slashed by half as officers clear passport at double-speed.
"We should get on board APIS soon. It will not only facilitate quicker processing of travel documents, it will also reduce incidents of forgery or counterfeit. At the immigration office, we are ready to implement it. The wait is now for airlines to begin uploading the information. A notice will be issued from the headquarters soon," said deputy commissioner of police (security control) Shakeel Ahmad.
At present, immigration officers receive the hard copy of passenger manifest or details of people travelling into or out of the country from the airline minutes before passengers queue up at the immigration desk. Once APIS is used, the information will be forwarded to officers in Kolkata the moment a flight takes off from anywhere in the world. The information is sent through secure servers linked globally to the South-East Asia server in which India is located that is transmitted to the country server followed by the city and finally to the airport. All this happens in a fraction of a second.
"Once the passenger manifest arrives, officers will check it for any traveller who has a lookout notice from a local enforcement agency or an Interpol alert. If some names appear on the list, they will be ticked off and the rest cleared. When the plane arrives, the passports of all except suspect passengers can be stamped quickly," an immigration officer said.
While it takes 60-90 seconds to clear each passenger now, the clearance post APIS will be crunched to under 60 seconds. This means an average flight of 200 passengers that takes 20 minutes for the 12 immigration officers to clear, will reduce to less than 10 minutes. "It is during evening (4.30p.m. to 7.30p.m) and late night (11.30p.m. to 2am) when four-five flights arrive and depart in quick succession that the queue gets inordinately long," he said.
There are 12 immigration desks in the arrival section and 10 in departure. In the new international terminal, there will be 28 desks in each section. "We will have two sets of 14 desks in arrival and a similar arrangement in departure so that passengers of two airlines can be simultaneously cleared," another officer explained.
There is also an initiative to improve the image of immigration officers, who are the first and the final point of contact with India for foreigners landing in the country. While the current dress code comprising white shirt and black trouser is staid, the Centre is planning to introduce a new uniform comprising sky blue shirt, dark gray trousers, black shoes, blue tie and navy blue blazer.
"The officers will also be asked to be more presentable and trained in soft skills. They have to be clean-shave and ensure that the dresses are well-ironed. In short, they have to pull up their socks and be smart," said a senior home ministry official.
EOM