The CISF plans to deploy an aircraft-centric model of security at small airports across the country, CISF Additional Director General M.A. Ganpathy said on Friday.
Ganpathy, who is incharge of airport security, said the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) would take charge of security of small airports for a short period as per the new model.
"The CISF will take over the security aspect at small airports for around two hours prior to plane arrival. During this period, its officials will frisk passengers and perform other security procedures."
The CISF team deputed for security at such airports would be relieved of duty after the plane departure, said Ganpathy, adding that further security of these airports would be handed over to police or other security agencies.
According to him, the new model will help reduce the number of CISF personnel assigned security duty by over 3,000, and small airport operators will not incur huge expenses on security apparatuses.
The CISF officer said the proposal on the new security model was suggested to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, in keeping with the government's low-cost flying scheme "Udan" for regional connectivity.
The 1.5-lakh strong paramilitary force, which is mandated to guards 59 civil airports across the country, is said to be struggling to get cleared dues of over Rs 750 crore in security fee pending with various airport operators, of which about Rs 737 crore is pending with DIAL (Delhi International Airport Limited) that operates the Indira Gandhi International Airport here.
"On the instructions of the Civil Aviation Ministry, the CISF will look into the records of DIAL to resolve the long-pending issue. While the total dues from all the airports has touched nearly Rs 750 crore, the amount pending against DIAL is Rs 737 crore," Ganpathy said.
On the CISF's manpower issues at the airports, Ganpathy said the strength augmentation proposal was pending in the Home Ministry.
"Right now, yes, it (schedule of personnel) is tight, the shifts have to be extended and it is not an ideal situation. But despite that, we are managing it very well," the officer said.
Asked about further easing and slashing of security clearance time for air travellers, Ganpathy said the Civil Aviation Ministry was working on a "digi yatra" project, with the help of biometric identity like Aadhaar, to reduce the time taken by a passenger to travel from the departure gate of the airport to the aircraft.
According to the officer, the CISF had done away with the hand-baggage tags for passengers at 37 airports. More airports would be brought under this new security regime by the end of 2018.
Talking of reports of mobile power banks posing security threat at the airports, Ganpathy said the problem was with the "locally made" gadgets as they look like improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during X-ray screening because of clay used in their manufacture.
He said the CISF has also detected over 1,445 kg gold, 536 kg silver and Rs 16.61 crore in cash in 2017 from 58 airports across the country. The seized items were handed over to airport intelligence and Income Tax authorities.
The official said the CISF has also provided security consultancy to 28 big schools since the murder of a student inside Ryan International School in Gurugram last year.
Some of the prominent schools which sought consultancy from CISF include The Doon School (Dehradun), Birla High School (Kolkata), St Xavier's Kolkata, Scindia School Gwalior, Poddar World School (Gujarat, Jaipur, Nagpur and Mumbai) and Silver Oak International School at Bengaluru. Four schools have even submitted the consultancy fee.
--IANS
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