IGI Airport's T3 terminal to replace carpets with hard flooring

The soft carpet at the T3 terminal of the IGI airport here would be removed to make way for hard flooring keeping in view the interest of the passengers, the airport operator has said.

It added that the process would start from October.

The decision of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) came in the wake of a passenger -- Suyash Gupta -- tweeting about the inconvenience faced in pulling trolley bags on the soft-carpeted floor on August 18, tagging both the DIAL and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha.

The latter had asked the DIAL to "follow up".

"Hi Suyash, Thank you for the feedback. We have initiated the design and implementation process for the replacement of the carpet with hard flooring in the passenger movement area, along with piers in a phased manner," the Delhi Airport Twitter handle said in its reply yesterday.

Sources said removing the carpets, which span the length and breath of the T3 terminal, was already under consideration for some time.

"@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," Gupta had tweeted.

"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," he had said in second tweet.

However, Gupta is not the only one to have complained about the inconvenience faced in pulling trolley bags. According to sources, on several occasions earlier, passengers had expressed their displeasure even when dragging a small light-weight four-wheeled trolley over the carpet. Complaints were also received about the upkeep of the carpet.