May 01, 2008 09:46 AM
5215 Views
In April I travelled from Delhi and landed at Shanshabad/ Hyderabad Airport around 9.30 am. I was very much excited before landing due to hype created by media. However, once landed, nothing was impressive except the building.
Even though most modern baggage claim belts have been installed, it took almost 25 minutes for the baggage to arrive. Once you come out, you have the choice of hiring a radio taxi costing about Rs. 500-600 for going to Secunderabad or get into GMR aeroexpress bus for Rs. 95. The staffs of GMR are so discourteous and rude that they do not guide you properly. Somehow I could board the bus after keeping my luggage and waited for almost 35 minutes for the bus to start. Meanwhile, I was shocked to see the staff of bus demanding tips from each passenger in the bus on account of keeping the luggage. This was over and above the official ticket price of Rs. 95/- being charged by GMR. If refused, they become rude and do not cooperate. While all the efforts have been made to keep the beggars away from the airport but unfortunately there is no control on these staff of bus who beg and demand tips. Tip is something, which one gives to other if he is pleased with other service but it cannot be demanded and it is not a right.
During traffic hours, bus takes almost 90-120 minutes to reach Secunderabad and on the way you are forced to listen Telgu songs at a very high volume. Not necessarily every passenger in the bus is interested in Telgu and with all due respect to local language, It must be ensured that more common language like Hindi or English may be played or if Telgu is so necessary then it can be played softly instead of at a high volume. When requested to bus driver, he refused to oblige as if the song was being played from him and not for the passengers.
In future, as far as possible, I would avoid going to Hyderabad and if possible would take a train route rather than air route. Just creating a beautiful structure is not enough, GMR has to do a lot in imparting proper training to their ground level staff and make them understand the need for customer satisfaction.
