NEW DELHI: A complete of 84 individuals working at 42 Indian airports had been discovered drunk on responsibility between January 2021 and March 2022, as per the info of the aviation regulator DGCA.
Fifty 4 (64 per cent) of the 84 employees who failed the necessary alcohol checks had been drivers, said the Directorate Common of Civil Aviation's information, which has been accessed by PTI.
Whereas lots of the employees who failed the alcohol checks had been employed by airport operators, a major part of them had been employed by different firms -- catering firms, floor dealing with firms, plane upkeep firms, and many others -- which work on the airport.
56 employees at 35 Airports Authority of India (AAI)-run airports, 17 employees at 4 Adani Group-run airports, 9 employees at two GMR group-run airports and two employees at Fairfax India-run Bengaluru airport failed the alcohol checks between January 2021 and March 2022, as per the DGCA information.
Nonetheless, Bengaluru airport's operator BIAL clarified that the 2 employees who failed the alcohol checks weren't its workers.
"Bengaluru airport (BIAL) has not had any situations of its workers failing the breath analyser take a look at in 2021, and to date this yr," it stated.
When requested concerning the aforementioned DGCA information of 56 employees failing the alcohol checks, the Centre-run AAI shared with PTI its personal information stating that solely 18 employees at 14 AAI-run airports failed the alcohol checks between January 2021 and March 2022.
"Out of 18 employees who failed the BA (breathalyzer) take a look at, three had been from the AAI and remaining 15 had been from AAI contracting companies," the AAI added.
On the query of what motion was taken towards the employees who had been discovered drunk, the AAI stated, "Applicable motion as per the prevailing pointers has been initiated."
The Adani Group and the GMR group didn't reply to PTI's queries relating to this matter.
The airport the place the very best variety of employees (9 employees) failed the alcohol checks between January 2021 and March 2022 was the Mumbai airport, which has been beneath management of the Adani Group since July final yr. Earlier than July 2021, the Mumbai airport was beneath the management of the GVK Group.
The GMR group-run Delhi airport was at quantity two with eight employees failing the alcohol checks within the aforementioned 15-month-period.
Aviation regulator DGCA had in September 2019 issued guidelines for BA take a look at for all airport employees. As per the foundations, the airport operator involved (equivalent to AAI, DIAL, MIAL, BIAL, and many others) has to usually conduct these random alcohol checks on not simply its personal workers, however workers of different firms who work on the airport.
As per the foundations, a minimum of 10 per cent of the personnel of every such firm working on the airport have to be randomly subjected to BA take a look at each day.
If any personnel is examined optimistic for alcohol for the primary time, or refuses to bear the take a look at, or makes an attempt to evade it by leaving the airport premises, then she or he have to be saved "off responsibility and their license/approval shall be suspended for a interval of three months", the foundations famous.
The foundations said that "in case of second violation of the provisions, the license/approval issued by DGCA of the involved personnel shall be suspended for a interval of 1 yr".
Whereas 54 of the 84 employees who failed the necessary alcohol take a look at between January 2021 and March 2022 had been drivers, individuals from different professions equivalent to aerobridge operator, loaders, wireman, ramp supervisor, floor help service crew and plane rescue and firefighting providers crew failed the alcohol checks too, as per the DGCA information.
The AAI-run airports the place 56 employees failed alcohol checks within the aforementioned 15-month-period had been in 35 cities together with Agartala, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Udaipur, Trichy, Tirupati, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Huble, Gaya, Coimbatore, Calicut, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Chennai, as per the DGCA information.
The AAI instructed PTI, "There's a zero tolerance within the AAI for the employees who come for responsibility inebriated. AAI HODs (head of departments) at respective airports sensitise their workers and the employees engaged by the contracting companies relating to non-consumption of alcohol/alcoholic drinks whereas on responsibility and apprises them of the penalties talked about within the DGCA CAR (regulation)."
"Additional, motion can also be initiated towards the AAI workers, who fail the BA take a look at repeatedly as per Airports Authority of India Workers (Conduct, self-discipline and attraction) Rules, 2003," the AAI added.
The airports in Guwahati, Jaipur and Lucknow are run by the Adani group. Eight employees at these three airports failed the alcohol checks between January 2021 and March 2022, as per the DGCA information.
One employee at Hyderabad airport, which is run by the GMR group, failed the alcohol checks within the aforementioned 15-month-period, it said.
Based on the DGCA, the aviation personnel beneath the ambit of the September 2019 guidelines embrace plane upkeep engineers, different technically skilled individual authorised to hold out upkeep of plane, car drivers who drive fuelling and catering autos, tools operators, aerobridge operators, marshallers, personnel manning apron management, floor dealing with providers personnel in addition to ATC personnel.
The pre-flight alcohol checks on pilots and cabin crew members are performed by the airways involved, said one other set of DGCA guidelines.