Security checks at the Indira Gandhi International Airport will be quicker September onwards, with the airport operator installing 10 Automatic Tray Retrieval Systems (ATRS), a roller-based set-up that will return luggage trays to the starting point after passengers collect their belongings from it.
In effect, senior officers said, the system would reduce the need for human intervention to return the trays to the starting point, thus freeing up Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel to frisk almost double the passengers it does at present. The Delhi airport operator DIAL (Delhi International Airport Ltd) and CISF are together working on installing the systems.
“At present, CISF personnel who conduct security checks manually collect the trays so they can be reused. ATRS will completely do away with the manual intervention, which will increase our efficiency by at least 60-75%. At present we clear around 180-200 passengers every hour at Delhi airport. After installation of the ATRS, we expect the number to go up by at least 330-350 passengers every hour,” said MA Ganapathy, Special Director General, CISF.
The officer added that the ATRS will also end passengers’ hassle of looking around for trays and waiting for others to finish using them, as the system will continuously circulate the available trays. The trays will have radio-frequency identification tags and will be under constant surveillance of CCTV cameras, he said. All 10 ATRS are currently being installed at the Terminal 3 domestic area, DIAL said.
