Manpower shortage puts Pune airport at risk

Pune airport, which introduced international flights to Dubai and Singapore in December last year, has been witnessing a serious manpower shortage at its immigration counters. The airport risks being identified as a porous point for entry into and exit from the country. The airport has five arrival and an equal number of departure counters which are used by city police officials attached to the special branch (SB) to verify the validity and genuineness of visas and passports. The police also examine other travel documents of passengers. Presently, a staff of 22 personnel including two inspectors, four sub-inspectors and 16 constables man these counters in two shifts round the clock. A senior SB official told TOI that this is against the requirement of 44 staff in the form of one inspector, three sub-inspectors and 18 constables per shift. The official said that while the police propose to deploy a special police team for immigration-related matters, currently, the team of police officials at the airport lacks thorough knowledge of immigration laws and documents.

The introduction of international flights on December 12, 2005, saw 13,594 Puneites fly to Dubai and 3,200 passengers to Singapore over the last one year. "Examination of documents before flights is a tedious and time-consuming job and the current team faces several problems when passengers rush to board a particular flight,"the official said. Following complaints from the ground staff, the SB wrote to police commissioner D.N. Jadhav earlier this month demanding more police personnel at the immigration counters. While Jadhav was on leave and not available for comment, deputy commissioner of police (SB) R.S. Khaire acknowledged that a letter was sent to the city police commissioner seeking more staff at the airport in preparation for the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games and the ancitipated increase in international flights from the airport. Presently, three international flights arrive from and take off to Dubai every week. Similarly, two flights arrive from and take off to Singapore via Hyderabad each week.

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