Srinagar Airport to get body scanners soon

The hi-tech body scanners will soon replace the doorframe metal detectors and body searches at the Srinagar International Airport to facilitate “maximum contactless processing” of passengers, Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said.

Officials said the step is significant not just from security perspective but also in view of the ongoing Covid-19 as it will help promote social distancing norm at the airport.

   

The Srinagar Airport falls under “hyper-sensitive” category. It is under direct operational control of the Indian Air Force (IAF. However, the terminal building, where the passengers check-in and check-out, and the apron area, where an aircraft is parked, are controlled by the AAI.

Officials said the AAI will install body scanners at several airports across the country of which Srinagar is one. “However, the hyper-sensitive airports will get priority in the installation of these devices,” the officials added.

“A trial run of the body scanners has been conducted at Pune and Delhi airports. We expect the body scanners to be installed at the Srinagar Airport soon,” Director, AAI, Srinagar Airport, Santosh Dhoke told Greater Kashmir.

The Airport Director said that the body scanners are developed with state-of-the-art technology “to fully scan the passengers without any physical contact.”

“Its installation is one of the steps that will encourage social distancing. They will replace existing doorframe metal detectors, hand-held scanners, and body searches of passengers used to detect metallic objects,” Dhoke said.

More than 50,000 persons have arrived at the Srinagar Airport since May 25 when the air traffic operations resumed after a hiatus of two months owing to lockdown due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

Dhoke said the equipment will be of a great help as “the passengers arrivals are expected to increase in days to come.”

“From 11 flights which operated last month, we now have almost 15-17 flights daily with more than 2000 passenger arrivals. Efforts are being made to ensure proper testing of all the passengers,” Dhoke said.

He said: “The fibre-reinforced polymer and acrylic sheet have been installed to avoid contact of passengers with each other at the check-in counters”.

Dhoke said the verification of identity proofs of the passengers was being done through webcams to avoid physical contact.

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