New Delhi: A new passenger tracking system has been put in place at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi to ensure social distancing even when more flights start operating.
The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a GMR-led consortium, has installed 513 sensors at nine places in T3, including in all check-in rows, domestic and international security check areas and emigrations in the departure areas. Another 16 sensors will be installed at the entry gates.
These sensors will alert 200 marshals and ground staff personnel at the terminal when physical distancing norms are flouted.
“This has been done keeping in mind the anticipated increase in air traffic after air bubbles are broken and normalcy is restored,” a representative of DIAL, who didn’t wish to be named, told ThePrint.
The sensors have been installed to add to Delhi airport’s existing Xovis Passenger Tracking System (PTS), a queue management system that provides live forecasts of waiting time to passengers at various places like check-in halls, arrival pier junction, security check area, immigration, and inside the terminal. Xovius PTS has been functioning at Delhi airport for the last one-and-a-half years now, according to Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, DIAL.
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How authorities will keep track
With the help of the new sensors, authorities will be able to count and track passengers anonymously based on images that will appear as white dots computed on the ceiling-mounted sensors.
The system provides valuable key performance indicators (KPIs) such as waiting time, process time, and passenger throughput, among other things.
The KPIs are visualised on an intuitive dashboard that allows authorities to quickly identify crowded areas. The system also generates auto-alerts that allow the marshals to act promptly.
There are two tools in place to track physical distancing — contagion map, which uses colours to represent breach (green indicates more than two people at a place, while dark blue is more than two persons), and a physical distancing indicator, which raises alerts on a scale of 1 to 5 (one being okay, three and above meaning norms are being flouted).
If found flouting physical distancing norms, a passenger will, however, not be fined. “We are not authorised to fine passengers. If distancing norms are broken, all we can do is politely ask them to disburse,” the DIAL representative quoted above said.
The sensors have only been installed at T3 for the time being, and there are no immediate plans to extend it to Terminal 2. Terminal 1 has not been functioning currently. Airport representatives also said IGI is the first airport in India to put such a system in place.
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