With over 5,500 people working on the airside every day, and 1,671 vehicles plying, driving inside the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport is anything but a breeze.

And the challan figures illustrate that well enough: an average of 300 issued every month, despite the airport operators’ claims of having taken the “best possible measures” to curb collisions and accidents on the airside. Estimates available with IGI’s developer, the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), so far this year show a collection of Rs 23 lakh as penalties for errant driving on the airside.

After Sanskriti Sinha, 27, an Air Deccan engineer, was found dead in accident between the airport’s taxiway and the ramp in October 2007, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had admitted that many drivers inside the airport did not have airport driving permits (ADPs), issued by DIAL. New regulations issued by the authorities made it mandatory for all vehicles plying on the airside to be equipped with speed governors, possession of ADPs by all drivers, and the barest minimum number of vehicles on the airside.

DIAL spokesperson Arun Arora says there are more than 1,671 Airport Driving Permits (ADP) valid at IGI at present. “These are issued after a training course conducted by DIAL’s airside management team,” he says.

Airport officials say the number of ground-handlers and vehicles operating on the airside is much more than the optimum. By conservative estimates, the ground-handling equipment at IGI is 30 per cent to 35 per cent more than what is ideal, airport officials say.

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