Horrid is not the word, if I knew something even harsher that would've been only too less what I went through today morning. How do you rate our city as the IT capital of India?? It could be with the number of IT companies opening up new branches here but the government is shutting its eyes on the very basic amenities that people need.
I had been to the BANGALORE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT(just the name, nothing NATIONAL about it, to say the least) to receive my cousin who was scheduled to arrive at 3:00 AM. I did read about an article the other day on TIMES OF INDIA about 'Mosquitoes invading the city', but little did I know that it was such a serious issue. I couldn't stand at one place and had to keep moving my arms and face to escape from these pests. This was just the beginning of my misery. The arrival terminal was deserted with a few airport staffs. Now I had to know if the flight was on time and to my surprise there was no place or person who could help me with that. Atlast one of the staff member requested me to go over to the other area and I just might find some assistance. With some relief I went to the other side and found the new INTERNATIONAL DEPARTURE block still under construction. Metal sheets, iron rods, glass panes all spread across the floor and in the middle of the rubble a tiny board with an arrow to the left that said "Departure boarding area". You decide for yourself, do I need to say more? Finally I did find the flights arrival information board placed inside the departure terminal(god knows why) that had an entry which was 2 days old(very efficient). I had no choice but to wait and hope the flights on time. I kept calling the flight enquiry department but no one even bothered to answer it. There were some friendly airport staffs who had the heart to tell me that the flight might arrive at 5:00 but not reliable sources though. I was still just hanging on to my own wits. There was a closed network TV but it was only showing a popular news channel when the public needed information about the flight statuses. At 5:10 the TV switches to the flight status mode and I read 'Flight arrived at 5:00'. If only the airport authorities had the intelligence or basic sense to see the problem from the publics angle. We become helpless victims for their mismanagement.
I felt so atrocious by the end of it and you can imagine the very many tourists who visits our country. They would feel the same. We should learn from other countries, its not a direct comparison and I wouldn't like to do that, but we cannot compromise on not having the very elemental needs be it any public facility. According to me the public facilities should be AS BEST AS IT CAN GET, PERIOD. The rest will follow suit.
I hope atleast a few would share my opinion if given a visit to our Bengalooru airport.
