Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the agency in charge of airport security, has stated this categorically in a report to the government. It has projected that the paramilitary force will need to almost double its airport deployment in the next five years given the explosive growth of air travel in India, and failing to do so in time could lead to “chaos” and make our big airports “unmanageable”.
Adding more peak hour flights at India’s biggest airports without augmenting the security manpower and infrastructure is proving to be a pain for both passengers — who have to wait in long queues — and for personnel — who are under ‘undue’ pressure to speed up frisking.
The CISF report was submitted to the home and aviation ministries recently. The report titled “Future Projection September 2017” says CISF will need 19,072 additional manpower in next five years. The extra requirement will be for reasons like new terminals at existing airports; new airports getting operational under regional connectivity scheme and augmenting city side security at all airports. The cost of this force expansion will be finalised shortly.
