Cargo terminals of sensitive and big airports like Delhi and Mumbai will now be under the security cover of paramilitary CISF after concerns were raised about their vulnerability to terrorist attacks.
The CISF which is the designated force to guard 59 civil airports of the country will take over the cargo terminals of almost eight big airports in Metro cities very soon.
"It is proposed that we take over the cargo terminals of eight big airports in the first step. More such terminals could be given to us to ensure fool-proof security," CISF Director General Rajiv said.
Till now the terminals were guarded by the private security personnel of the airport developer or the Airports Authority of India (AAI), as the case may be.
The other airports expected to deploy CISF guards include Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi and Ahmedabad.
Senior security officials said few instances regarding the security of these terminals, which deal with huge volume of material and heavy movement of men and machine, have sent strong signals that these areas need to be regulated by a strong access-control policy so that the overall security of the airports and aircrafts is ensured.
Central Industrial Security Force will also take over the security of smaller airports like Jabalapur in Madhya Pradesh, Juhu airport in Mumbai and Jamnagar airport in Gujarat.
Owing to non-fulfilment of deployment dues and other service-related commitments, CISF last year also withdrew its security personnel from five units of Food Corporation of India, a government-run paper mill in Assam's Panchgram, a bottling plant of SPCL in Vishakhapatnam and MAMC in West Bengal's Durgapur.
The force also plans to enhance its female work force.
One of the largest among central paramilitary forces, the CISF has 4.3 per cent women in its various ranks now. There are plans to enhance the women component to about 10 per cent of the total force strength over the years, the DG said.
The force at present has a strength of 1.30 lakh men and women approximately.
