E-Paper
A year on, aviation ministry to install body scanners at airports
Covid, lockdown delayed plan to get scanners with more security and a touchless experience by March 2020
New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport is likely to be the first of the country’s airports that will be outfitted with technologically advanced body scanners starting March, a whole year after they were first meant to be installed, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) officials said.
“Recommendations on the project to implement body scanners at the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) have been made by the special committee constituted for the purpose and approvals are awaited from BCAS,” a DIAL spokesperson said, adding that they will take up the project as soon as they receive the approval.
As per the Centre’s directions, all Indian airports were to be installed with body scanners that offer enhanced security and a touchless experience by March 2020, but the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent closure of airports led to a delay in procuring the scanners, officials said.
“Though our idea of procuring body scanners was approved by the government, it could not be taken ahead last year due to excessive financial constraints caused due to Covid-19 pandemic,” senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) officer, who did not wished to be named, said.
“Specifications of the body scanners have been finalized. We are now planning to have a combination of both the systems: body scanners and door frame metal detectors (DFMDs) and then slowly switch to only body scanners once the air services resume normalcy,” said a top Ministry of Civil Aviation official who did not wish to be named.
Currently, DFMDs and hand-held metal detectors only detect metal objects. However, body scanners provide better security as they can scan plastic-based explosives as well as metallic items.
Passengers would be required to remove their shoes, belts, jackets and all metallic objects according to an SOP released by the BCAS in 2019.
The aviation ministry had made it mandatory for all 28 hypersensitive and 56 sensitive airports to install body scanners by March 2020 while the remaining airports were permitted to install them by March 2021.
Of around 105 operational airports in the country, hypersensitive airports include those in Delhi, Mumbai, Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.
Following the delay caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, a committee of officials from the BCAS, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and airport operators was formed in October 2020 to identify the space for installation of full body scanners and to decide on the number of body scanners.
How the body scanner works
Body scanner is an open structure that a passenger will require standing between two wall-like structures for around three seconds during which it captures an image of the person using millimeter wave technology to see if any prohibited item is on them.
A mannequin-like image is generated and if there is a yellow spot on the screen, it means that area on the body may need further screening.According to BCAS officials, body scanners can handle 300 passengers an hour and should store the scanned images of the passengers for at least seven days.
Passengers would be required to take off their footwear and belts.
Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport had conducted a trial in August 2019 with a scanner that used a non-ionising electromagnetic radiation technology that is considered safer for pregnant women. The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad also conducted a three-month trial of body scanning machines for passengers on voluntary basis at the domestic departure terminals in 2019.
Last July, Airports Authority of India (AAI) had issued a tender to procure 198 body scanners for 63 airports, following which three companies had placed bids. The tendering procedure was put on a pause during the pandemic.Of these, 19 were to be used in the Chennai airport, 17 in Kolkata airport, seven in the Srinagar airport, and 12 for the Pune airport, among others. Delhi and Mumbai were not included in this list as both are managed through joint ventures between AAI and pvt firms.
