At Mumbai airport, passengers complain of long queues at immigration counter

Mumbai airport’s immigration counters for international arrivals witnessed a huge rush in the morning hours of Tuesday as hundreds of passengers had to spend three to four hours in the queue.

Taking to social media, passengers expressed their anguish.

They claimed there were 24 immigrations counters that were open but not enough personnel to manage leading to long hours of clearances.

The international arrivals have to go through a biometric identification system.

Also Read: Mumbai airport issues advisory for passengers to beat holiday rush: ‘Come early’

“Kuwait to Mumbai flying time 3:30 hours. Getting out of Mumbai Airport immigration queue 3 hours. Welcome to Mumbai!” a disgruntled passenger wrote adding “4 hors and counting. Only one counter open for an entire queue of over 100 people. What a welcome to the country.”

Another passenger at the arrivals said, “T2 Terminal Mumbai Int Airport Arrivals immigration had 24-30 counters in operation with the scanning issues on Monday night Tuesday morning. The passengers waited 3-4 hours to clear immigration then to collect abandoned baggage & clear customs. Why?”

Reacting to the developments, Mumbai airport officials said immigration and customs are central agencies and they cannot interfere in allocation of personnel if passenger volume increased.

With the onset of festival season, Mumbai airport is witnessing a huge surge in domestic and international passengers.