The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is in charge of security at the airport, has proposed to install vehicle scanners at the approach road, at least 500m away from the terminal building. According to the officials, scanners can detect explosives in vehicles.
The scanners will be installed at every lane of CISF’s checking barrier before the Terminal 3 and Terminal 1, which is 500m away from the main building. The force will have a hooter at the checking point to alert security personnel at the terminal building in case they come across a suspicious vehicle. “We have a security check point before the terminal building where vehicles are stopped and checked on random basis. But there is no mechanism to check if the vehicle has explosives in it,” said a CISF official.
“Once we have the scanners, vehicles can be checked. There are bollards next to the checking point to stop vehicles. If a vehicle skips the bollards, we will press the hooter so that quick reaction teams (QRTs) can take position and minimise the damage,” said a CISF official. Sources said the scanners will cost Rs 2.5 crore each. Currently, passengers are allowed to enter the terminal without any security check. The security agency could not introduce the concourse checking plan, where passengers will be frisked at the entry gate itself.
Checking is done on a random basis and attackers can cause real damage if they reach the terminal with arms and explosives. The CISF has also purchased explosive trace detectors (ETD) that can tell if anyone has touched explosive items in the past 24 hours. Since travellers spend considerable time before the security check at the airport, the CISF stops them randomly just after they enter the terminal. Based on profiling, they are taken to a separate enclosure and the ETD check is carried out. The device scans the baggage and the travellers’ hands to check if they have packed explosives in their luggage. At the Delhi airport, the CISF has separate enclosures located near the entry gate, where they check suspicious-looking travellers. The CISF is planning to use hand-held ETDs to check passengers with artificial limbs so they do not have to go through the trauma of removing it during security check.
