Manpower with technology is required to deal with rising number of air passengers: BCAS chief

New Delhi [India], August 3 : Full body scanners will soon be installed at Delhi, Mumbai and other airports as manpower with technology is required to deal with the rising number of air passengers at all airports in the country, said Zulfiquar Hasan, director general of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
He was speaking at the inauguration of aviation security culture week, beginning on July 31 at BCAS headquarters in Delhi.
“Going with the growth in the aviation sector, full body scanners are required. After detailed trials, orders have been placed and soon it will be installed at Delhi, Mumbai and other important airports in a phase-wise manner. We have the capacity and manpower to frisk 66,000 passengers per hour in the country at various airports,” said Hassan.
Full Body scanners will certainly help in detecting prohibited items, and drugs hidden inside the body cavity that can’t be detected in the presently available security systems like Door Frame Metal Detector (DFMD) and Hand handled Metal detectors.
“Only three-four companies in the world that are in manufacturing of full-body scanners, the orders have been placed, it will be done at the earliest.” He added.
Earlier, informing about the utility of full-body scanners, a senior Airport Authority of India official said that presently, it takes around 30 seconds on average to frisk a passenger manually but with the deployment of these millimetre-wave technology-based full-body scanners, the same can be done in 15 seconds. The official had also informed that, unlike the metal detector, the millimetre-wave-based full body scanner will help to detect any liquid or plastic hidden underneath the clothes of the passenger. It works on the principle of body contours and is designed to detect objects that could be concealed in the body.
AAI will be installing 131 full-body scanners at various airports operated by AAI, depending upon the passenger load.