Mumbai Airport's new Terminal 2 Arrivals section; My experience

For my complaints, I got a toothy smile and made up the name of a manager to whom I could, if I wished, complain.

BHPian MadinMumbai recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Today I got to experience the world-class infrastructure we are building. For a change, I wasn’t travelling but instead was there to pick up an octogenarian, who was arriving at the shiny Terminal 2. Typically, when I travel, I alight at the drop-off and walk into the airport and it is smooth. On my return, there’s the Uber/Prepaid taxi battle (which is offputting in its way, I guess) but nothing prepares you for the experience Adaniji has curated if you choose to pick anyone from the airport.

Firstly, there is no pick-up point. You have to park (and of course PAY) if you are picking up anyone from this airport. The parking is crowded and badly managed but one can survive it if one is in a good mood. I was not, but that’s only partly the airport management’s fault. Others, like the metro construction and general road maintenance, have to share some of the blame. The senior citizen I had to pick up was told to wait by the Starbucks in case I got late owing to traffic. Of course, I got late. There was a jam to beat all the jams to get into the airport parking. The jam started outside the Leela, which is more than a kilometre away from the parking. Anyway, Starbucks is a comfortable enough place to wait, so no complaints on that score.

Secondly, Once I parked, I was on the P5 level. And the person I was receiving was on P6. No biggie, I thought. A small flight of stairs would take me up, and I was right. But, before I could reach the stairs, I had to navigate my way through parked motorcycles. Parked tight, with the precision of a MAHDA bricklayer, these motorbikes left no way to squeeze through. Anyway, I channelled my inner gymnast and vaulted over three rows of scooters to get to the stairs, which, as I had thought, took me up to P6 in a matter of 10 odd stairs. Chalo's lesson learnt. Will alight from a different side.

I met the octogenarian and was glad to see that she was carrying a light suitcase. As luck would have it, there was a flight of stairs right next to the Starbucks where she was. This being a different flight of stairs, from the one I had taken previously, I assumed it would lead to a different experience. We walked down the 10-odd stairs to get to P5 where my car was parked. But, instead of finding a clear path to the car parking, we were once again confronted by motorbikes parked tightly in a grid. We were completely boxed in. This situation was far worse than the stairs at the other end, because, this was also the path for incoming motorcycles. How the hell does one get an 80-something-year-old person to vault over 3 rows of bikes? We decided that the bikers were coming into the parking so there must be a way out on that side to get out and started walking in that direction. Now, we were stuck amongst incoming bikers, most of whom (not all though) were considerate and didn’t honk or rev up threateningly. All in all, it was harrowing and with great difficulty we managed to get past the sea of bikes to reach our car.

One had to wonder at the genius at work here. How can you create a parking with no access to the stairs? What happens in the case of a fire? If I remember right this Airport was touted as one of the world’s best when it was made recently. What happened? Did the ‘ED aided’ corporate takeover result in some leakage of good sense?

On the way out I decided to chat with the parking supervisor. For my complaints I got a toothy smile and made up the name of a manager (Rajesh Yadav) to whom I could, if I wished, complain. There was no number where this manager could be reached though.

Here's what BHPian reverse_gear had to say on the matter:

Mumbai T2 is absolutely one of the worst airports to get out of. If you are travelling alone (without much baggage), you can figure your way out after a few visits. But pick-up is an eternal nightmare. It has always been bad and continues to deteriorate on an ongoing basis. The road through the bus and auto stand at T2 has been dug up for repairs for over 3 years! How does it take so long to fix a 300 m section of road? Escalators at the exit don't go to all floors, they seem to be randomly arranged. Some of the staircases are unusable (as you have discovered). They have big counters and booths for payment of parking fees, but they are rarely manned or functional and the car lines to exit parking can be horrendous. And inside the parking lot, it is complete chaos, in so many different ways. Even getting an Ola/Uber is an absolute pain, having to dodge between pillars, trolleys and randomly parked vehicles just to locate your vehicle (after it has negotiated the 10-minute wait in queue to get into the parking lot).

After having been there hundreds of times, I am mentally prepared for the worst whenever I have to go there. But, sorry, this is no way to manage an airport. Forget being world-class, in my humble opinion, it is a modern disgrace to our city.

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