Bullet-proof windows for Aerocity hotels

The last hurdle for the opening of five-star hotels that form a part of the Aerocity project, the hospitality district near the Indira Gandhi International airport, seems to have been finally cleared. Tushar Srivastava reports.

The last hurdle for the opening of five-star hotels that form a part of the Aerocity project, the hospitality district near the Indira Gandhi International airport, seems to have been finally cleared.

As per the directions of the aviation ministry on January 30, Aerocity hotels needed to install "toughened glasses with bulletproof film" on windows facing the airport runway.

This was done to allay security concerns as it was feared that sabotage activities could be undertaken to target runways and VVIP operational areas from these buildings.

Samples of the bulletproof glass was recently tested by a team of the Defence Research and Development Organisation in Chandigarh in the presence of a technical specification committee comprising officials from intelligence and security agencies and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.

"Bullets were fired on the glass sheet to test their effectiveness. A few meters behind the glass an aircraft frame was kept to examine the possible impact if a bullet was fired from inside the hotel room," a top official of the Delhi International Airport Limited (Dial), the private operator of the Delhi airport, said.