Hyderabad: GMR led Hyderabad International Airport recommenced its operations from 25th May as per the direction from the government. While the operations have started and the airport is expecting the traffic to pick up gradually, GHIAL Management is constantly engaging with all stakeholders to strategize and work in collaboration to provide a safe and sanitized environment for passengers at the airport.
This is aligned to the GHIAL’s objective of “One Family, One Mission” infusing a sense of common commitment to provide a safe passenger experience under the motto of “Passenger is Prime”.
The taxis ferrying passengers between the airport and city hold a very crucial role during this Covid-19 scenario. Airport authorized taxi services viz. Meru, Skycab, Ola, Uber, One Car, Srinivasa Tours & Travels among others have resumed their operations at the airport from 25th May onwards. As an important partners of airport in terms of providing safe travel, these operators have been sensitized about the norms and provided adequate information and instructions to follow while ferrying passengers.
The safety measures at the airport begin from the parking zone of the airport, where besides social distancing markings, digital payment options and other contact-less measures, the airport has also come up with a robust mechanism to provide a sanitized taxi experience for every passenger using the airport-authorized taxi service from GMR led Hyderabad International Airport.
Thermal screening of taxi drivers
Every driver of the taxi entering the airport is thermally screened and his temperature is logged – only those drivers with a normal body temperature are allowed to perform duties at the airport.
Taxi Sanitization
Once the driver is cleared to drive, the taxi sanitization is conducted right in front of the passengers so that they could have a sense of confidence before they enter a particular taxi at the airport.
Designated taxi sanitization personnel in their full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are available to sanitize each taxis before passengers set their foot inside the vehicle. The taxi sanitization process at Hyderabad International Airport is three-pronged:
Disinfection of Taxi Interior: The sanitization personnel use a specially developed fumigation machine to spray WHO recommended disinfectant inside the vehicle. This neutralizes any virus inside the vehicle. Once the spray is done, the vehicle is left idle for 2 minutes for higher impact on eliminating viruses and other germs.
Disinfection of Taxi Exterior: Once the internal disinfection is done, the sanitization personnel does the WHO recommended spray treatment of the outer body of the vehicle. The spray is done on the entire body of the vehicle to make it completely sanitized for the use of humans.
Disinfection of Taxi Body touch-points: The last process is the sanitization of all components of the vehicle, which a passenger or driver would be touching while using a vehicle. This includes sterilization of vehicle’s door latches, interior of vehicle viz. doors, glove box, dashboard, seats, seat gloves, steering wheels, gear lever, head-rests, AV vents, AC vents/buttons among others.
Some of the airport-authorized taxis are also providing a plastic partition between the taxi driver and passengers. This minimizes any contact with passengers and preventing any contagion.
All taxi drivers have been instructed to mandatorily wear face masks at all times while driving their vehicles. The taxi drivers are also instructed to keep sanitizer in their taxis for customers’ usage. Telangana government has permitted 24X7 taxi services to and from the airport. Hence the passengers are advised to carry a copy of ticket or boarding card while travelling to/from the airport.
To follow social distance norms inside the taxi, besides the driver only three customers as per govt mandate are being allowed to travel in one vehicle.
The airport car park is FASTag enabled and offers wide options of digital mode of payments including digital wallets making all transactions fully contact-less to prevent any contagion.
Social distancing, stickering/blocks has been put in place at Car parking area. The entire car park zone is being regularly cleaned and sanitized.
Mr. SGK Kishore, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL), said, “Passenger safety has always been our top priority. During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, while India is cautiously opening up, we are taking all possible measures to ensure that we can offer a safe & healthy environment for all our passengers and airport community members.
In line with our motto of ‘Passenger is Prime’, we are offering fully sanitized airport-authorized taxis with thermally screened drivers to ferry the passengers, ensuring a safe travel experience between the airport and city for all our passengers.”
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