Intrusion detection device at IGI gives false alarms

The much-touted perimeter intrusion detection system (PIDS) that was expected to make Delhi airport secure is still a distant dream. Faizan Haider reports. System breakdown

The much-touted perimeter intrusion detection system (PIDS) that was expected to make Delhi airport secure is still a distant dream.

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The system was installed last year after a delay of over two years, but the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has refused to use it after it started giving false alarms during the trial run.

The CISF, which is responsible for the security of the airport, has asked the operator to minimise the false signals. Sources in the CISF said that sometimes it gives a signal of intrusion even if a bird crosses the periphery.

“It gives an alert of intrusion even when our own staff conducts patrolling around the periphery. We want a near-perfect system that sends alert only when they is an intrusion. We have asked the DIAL to fix the problem and only then we will take it over,” a CISF official, requesting anonymity said.

The system was supposed to be installed before the Commonwealth Games but got delayed due to several reasons. Finally, last year around October, DIAL handed it over to the CISF. But after weeks of trial run, it refused to take it over.

According to a DIAL spokesperson, the system is fully operational and is being monitored by the CISF.

Sources said that CISF men do sit in the control room but they are not relying on the system to prevent intrusion. The four-layered PIDS, with physical and covert detection systems -- including taut wire, buried cable, CCTV cameras and radars --- has been installed around the existing perimeter wall of the airport.