On October 8, Mumbai International Airport witnessed a heavy rush amid the Navaratri festival. The airport was extremely crowded and looked like a bustling railway station. There was utter chaos as a result, several people missed their flights and blamed the airport authorities for poor crowd management. Luggage and cuss words were thrown and there were long queues. Frustrated passengers took to social media to vent out their anger. To handle the situation, additional airport staff were deployed and some of the flights were shifted to the Santacruz terminal.
T2 AT CSMIA (Mumbai Airport) is a shambles.
Literally feels like we're in the dark ages. Endless milling crowds, machines breaking down, tempers frayed, chaos everywhere. Staff doing their best but absolutely unable to cope.
Who runs this absolute shitshow? Please tag them.
— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) October 8, 2021
Earlier, Airport Workers From Mumbai Took ₹4000 From Each Flyer To Help Skip Quarantine
An airport worker and two of his accomplices were arrested for taking bribes from passengers for forged entry documents allowing them to avoid mandatory quarantine in January 2021. According to India.com, the accused Dinesh Gawande charged ₹4000 from each flyer. And provided them with fake home quarantine documents with counterfeit rubber stamps, signatures & stamps of doctors from some top hospitals, including Tata Memorial Hospital and Asian Heart Institute.
Also Read: Mumbai Airport Now Provides Food & Wi-Fi For Travellers Waiting For COVID Test Results
They Took Bribes & Forged Health Documents
The police seized ₹1,40,000 and 200 Saudi Riyals from the suspects, along with a fake rubber stamp used to certify home quarantine and doctors’ notes providing quarantine exemption. The police found out that the BMC had posted Gawande at Mumbai airport to check flyers from Dubai, Kuwait, and the US. He had been working there since December 23, 2020. This means that potentially hundreds of passengers skipped obligatory quarantine since Dinesh’s transfer.
Also Read: Mumbai Airport Launches Express Covid PCR Testing For Departing Passengers
According to India.com, Dinesh admitted to collecting bribes and sharing them with his partners, Sarang and Singh. Police are now checking his bank records to understand who all can be involved in this case. Mumbai authorities have scaled up their travel restrictions, requiring all passengers arriving from Europe and the Middle East to self-isolate in a hotel for a week at their own expense. After that, passengers must receive a negative COVID test result and undergo seven days of home quarantine. Meanwhile, here’s a passenger’s experiences of travelling from Mumbai to Delhi.