Anand Mahindra's tweet boosts existing demand for simpler immigration

'Spanking new terminals, but poor process flow at our airports,' the M&M chief tweeted

Industrialist Anand Mahindra has tweeted about cumbersome immigration procedures at Indian airports lending support to the demand for scrapping secondary checks.

International travellers on arrival at Mumbai, Bangalore and few other airports have queued up to show their passports to a constable after passing through immigration check.  Passengers have questioned the need for this secondary check  as it leads to delays and hold up in arrival areas. However the secondary check is not in place in Delhi airport.

"Spanking new terminals, but poor process flow at our airports. Right after immigration,some chap checks passports again creating a bottleneck... As an IT power we help MNCs reengineer their processes; but to visitors we look like dimwits who can't simplify airport processes,'' Anand Mahindra tweeted. Mahindra was accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Australia.

His comments on Twitter led to reactions from both sides but most favouring simplification of customs and immigrations procedures at airports. A few commented that the secondary check may be necessitated due to security reasons and also asked whether Indians complain so loudly about stiff security norms in the US or Europe.

According to Mumbai  airport officials , secondary check in the departure area has been done away and there is a plan to stop the practice in arrival too following trials. Recently, the immigration department has stopped arriving Indians and departing foreigners to fill a form. Mumbai airports terminal T2 has 132 counters and handles about 20,000 passengers daily.