The Centre is planning to procure five full Body truck scanners for five crucial border posts, in accordance with the laid down procedure. The Government has issued a Global Tender Enquiry for the procurement, and is also in a process of obtaining various clearances from the respective State Governments and other nodal agencies for the same.
The Full Body Truck Scanners (FBTS) are being demanded for installation at Attari (Indo-Pak Border), Petrapole (Indo-Bangladesh Border), Raxual (Indo-Nepal Border), Poonch-Chakkanda-bagh (Indo-Pak Border) and Uri-Salamabad (Indo-Pak Border).
Full-body truck scanners can easily detect fissile material, narcotics and contraband. The business community engaged in import and export of merchandise has also shown a persisting interest in this security equipment.
The demand of FBTS has been long in queue for the traders who had taken up the matter with the Union Minister of Home affairs, Rajnath Singh, and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, in the past. However, despite of repeated assurances of providing instrumental security apparatus like scanners and other relevant machinery it could not be provided till now.
According to the Land Ports Authority of India Act, 2010, it is mandatory to install scanners at the posts through which international trade is carried out. Earlier the Customs Department had also written to the Centre, seeking two full body-truck or drive-through scanners for the import section, numerous times but to no avail.