From April, hi-tech system to protect airport

From April, the country’s busiest airport, which is surrounded by slums, would begin the installation of Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS), reports Soubhik Mitra.

A lakshman rekha will soon guard the airport boundaries.

HT Image

But unlike divine powers it had as illustrated in the Hindu epic Ramayana, this state-of-the-art system would alert security guards when a trespasser scales the airport boundary wall.

From April, the country’s busiest airport, which is surrounded by slums, would begin the installation of Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS). The multi-crore system is a combination of three types of surveillance devices: Closed-circuit television cameras, infrared beams and a radio control room that would monitor radio frequency.

So, when someone tries to the jump the boundary wall a sensor in the system would immediately beep, alerting the security agencies.

“Installations will begin in April but it will fully operational towards end of the year,” said a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson.

Earlier, security agencies had mentioned that manually guarding the airport wall 24x7 was “impossible”. The problem is pertinent for the Mumbai airport considering the proximity of the boundary walls to the slums.

The recent incidents of slumdwellers scaling the airport wall are a growing concern. On March 22, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials found a mentally-challenged boy loitering on the airfield. When they asked him what he was doing there, the boy said he was “a Pakistani.”

The hi-tech system would also be handy in alerting dog-catchers to keep strays outside the airfield.