Actress Mahima Chaudhury and child struggled to find trolleys on arrival at Calcutta airport on Wednesday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Siliguri/Calcutta, March 12: The countrywide indefinite “non-cooperation” movement by Airports Authority of India (AAI) employees, which began from midnight, partially affected ground services at Bagdogra.

Trolleys had to be procured and dispensed with by the passengers, toilets were not cleaned, the lift in the terminal building had to be self-operated, and different airlines’ staff managed the conveyor belts for registered luggage leaving and arriving with different flights.

“There was, however, no disruption in the landing and taking off,” said Bagdogra Airport director K.K. Bhowmik. “All eight arrivals and departures scheduled for today were on time.”

The one thing going in favour of Bagdogra is that air force personnel man its ATC, fire tenders and other essential airport services. However, passengers have been advised to carry as little luggage as possible as long as the agitation continues, an airport official said.

The “go-slow” agitation by the Airports Authority Employees’ Union has been called to protest against the construction of private airports at Begumpet (Hyderabad) and Bangalore.

“These were profitable airports run by the government, which had even spent Rs 400 crore to modernise Begumpet airport. What was the need to hand them over to the private sector,” asked Biplab Das, the branch secretary of the union’s Bagdogra unit.

Das said the 26 AAI employees at the airport did not attend work today. “About 35 workers on contract also stayed away.”

Calcutta airport was similarly affected. Although flight operations were normal, passengers had no clue about changes in the schedule, as information display boards and the public address system were not working.

Things worsened further in the evening, when more than half the lights in the airport went out.

“We cannot help it. When 100-odd officials are forced to do what 2,000-strong workforce does, the service cannot be any better,” said a senior airport official.