Speaking at the 37th raising day of BCAS, Zulfiquar Hasan, the agency’s chief, has said keeping up with the sector’s growth is the biggest challenge Indian aviation faces.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has been deploying new-age security systems at airports across the country including state-of-the-art 3D, perimeter security equipment, biometric-based access control, and surveillance systems even as serious challenges remain, the agency’s head has said.
Speaking at the 37th raising day of BCAS, Zulfiquar Hasan, the agency’s chief, on Thursday said keeping up with the sector’s growth is the biggest challenge Indian aviation faces. He said a small airport with two flights daily is as significant as the biggest one. “The threat is to the network and the network is global.”
Minister of state for civil aviation VK Singh said BCAS brings a big assurance to all airline passengers while calling for the need to adopt stringent procedures to tackle the challenges technologies pose.
Civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal said that earlier they faced a shortage of funds but now they are short of skilled manpower to manage airports. “…Be it screeners, security personnel, CISF [Central Industrial Security Force (CISF] or immigration, there is a requirement for all the airport operators to augment training and skill capacity because our country cannot be short of skilled people.” He added India will have six to eight new mega airports by 2024-26, adding capacity for around 450 million passengers annually.
Hasan said commercial interests and security considerations have to be balanced. He added new age threats such as cyber hijacking and drones are challenging. He said the security and infrastructure at airports need to be multiplied and modernised.
Hasan called congestion a serious security challenge as it leads to an increase in the density of unchecked passengers with unchecked luggage. “…it is now being addressed at all airports,” he said, referring to the steps taken to avoid overcrowding after several passengers in December complained about missing flights.
