Indian airports may see a further delay in installation of full body scanners as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Monday withdrew its tender to procure 131 such scanners. It had floated a tender to procure them on July 6.
“An issue in one of the clauses from the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) needs to be sorted, hence the tender had to be withdrawn,” an official aware of the development said, seeking anonymity. “The AAI is confident to float the tender for full body scanners soon.”
This is not the first time that the authority has withdrawn a tender for the scanners. Following a Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) circular, the AAI had in 2020 issued a tender to procure 198 body scanners for 63 airports. However, the DIPAM had rejected it and had approved only 98 body scanners across the AAI airports, leading to its cancellation.
“After DIPAM’s rejection, the issue was revisited and accordingly it was decided that 131 body scanners would be needed for the airports,” a second AAI official said, declining to be named. “Each machine costs around ₹4 crores, including annual maintenance cost, because of which the final cost was higher than the estimated cost. This is one of the reasons for the delay.”
The government has been maintaining that the full body scanners for airports will ensure better screening of flyers. It had been in focus since before the pandemic but was delayed due to the outbreak, AAI officials said. The authority aims to complete the tendering procedure and issue a letter of award to the successful bidder by the end of this year, they said.
“Body scanners are heavy items. They are made only on the receipt of an order. Looking at the current status, it is highly unlikely that the country’s airports will get body scanners by the end of the year,” a former AAI official claimed, wishing to remain unnamed.
The AAI manages 137 airports in India, which include 24 international airports, 10 customs airports and 103 domestic airports. Aviation security regulator BCAS had in April 2019 directed 84 sensitive airports to install body scanners by March 2020, replacing existing door frame metal detectors, hand-held scanners and pat-down searches of passengers.
“Walk-through metal detectors and hand-held metal detectors cannot detect non-metallic weapons and explosives,” it had said. “Body scanners detect both metallic and non-metallic items concealed on the body.” Even after they are installed, the current door-frame detectors would remain in place for wheelchair bound passengers and those who physically cannot pass through the full body scanners, officials said.
Officers of the Central Industrial Security Force, in their trial runs before the pandemic, had tested two technologies, backscatter X-ray and millimeter wave technology, and had decided to adopt the latter because of lower radiation emitted from it.
