The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which is in charge of the security of airports around the country will soon be introducing body scanners in the airport at New Delhi to begin with, and later in Hyderabad, said its Director General O.P. Singh here on Friday.
“We have tried out body scanners made by firms belonging to United States and Germany, where we came across a few ambiguities in the screening process. We have asked the firms to rectify them and in the meantime, another foreign firm too has come forward to install them. We will soon start with them on a pilot basis,” he said, after opening the country’s first ‘Express Security Check Facility’ at the GMR-led Rajiv Gandhi International airport in Shamshabad, Hyderabad, in the presence of CEO S.G.K. Kishore.
Changing preferences
Mr. Singh said passengers would have the option of opting for screening through the body scanners once they were introduced. “If they did not want to go through body scanners then they will have to go through the usual body patting and frisking procedure by our personnel,” he explained.
The CISF DG said the security force was aware of the changing preferences of the customers and had joined hands with the regulatory authorities and the airport managers to permit baggage without stamping in 13 airports around the country, starting with Hyderabad.
“We have plans to remove the baggage stamping from all the 59 airports in the country by the year end. It will be removed in six more airports before Independence Day or within a week, and another 19 airports will follow suit by the end of the month,” said Mr. Singh.
Sensitive zones
About 36 airports are in the “hypersensitive” and “sensitive” zones. Hence, the CISF would be going about the job after a thorough process, ensuring that there was no compromise on the security front. It was also ready to take up security of the upcoming Hyderabad Metro Rail project if the TS government asked since it was already looking after the Delhi Metro security, handling up to 30 lakh passengers a day. It had also trained security personnel for the Lucknow airport, he said.