A file picture shows travellers using the e-gate at the Hamad International Airport.
Doha: Currently 70 percent of passengers, either citizens or residents, travelling through Hamad International Airport are using e-gates.
A senior official of the Ministry of Interior’s Airport Passport Department said that 70 percent entitled passengers use e-gates services as children under 16 cannot use these gates for immigration procedure. The official said that the target was to pass 100 percent passengers through these electronically facilitated gates.
“We will increase the number of e-gates by 40 and they have been launched to serve everyone. In the future, visitors will also be able to use these e-gates,” said Captain Abdullah Mohammed Al Jasmi, Head of Administrative Affairs of Airport Passports Department. He was speaking to one of the local radio stations yesterday.
Replying to a question about problems being faced by families of using the e-gates, he said that the problem of families is due to the fact that their children under 16 years can not use the e-gates but “we have found a solution which is ‘family registration program’ where the parent should register children and activate the use of the e-gate facility counter.
For those who do not know how to use the e-gates, he pointed out that there is staff from the airport administration and passports to help them in this regard.
On the subject of people with special needs and the elderly people, Al Jasmi confirmed that Hamad International Airport has many services for people with special needs, the sick and the elderly.
“The airport administration provided staff to serve these people who have special needs and they have special counters to finish their transactions quickly.”
Al Jasmi also revealed that people with special needs will soon use e-gates with greater capacity.
First Lieutenant Saleh Hamad Al Marri, an officer of the Airport Security Department said that Hamad International Airport is secured by a land and sea fence, as well as sensors, and all sensors are connected to a control room. “In the case of warnings issued by one of the sensors, report will be transferred to the patrols directly.”
He also said that the surveillance cameras in the airport have multiple tasks. “Besides their security functions, they also have to monitor the performance and work of the staff, improve their performance, monitor the situation in general at the airport and report in case of suspicion of anything inside the airport.”
