IGI airport to have body scanners from November

New Delhi: The Bureau for Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is introducing a body scanner for a third trial run at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport from November.

The scanner can detect several targets such as metallic and non-metallic weapons, standard and home-made explosives (sheet and bulk), liquids, gels, plastics, powders, metals, ceramics, and others solids.

The scanner also has the ability to see under people’s clothing and detect non-metal objects such as plastic explosives too.

Earlier during the last trial in December 2016, the Central Industrial Security Force, security agency at the airport, raised concerns over body scanners not being able to adapt to the Indian way of dressing and giving false alarms whenever a woman clad in a sari passed through it. According to sources,  those passengers travelling out of the city will be given the option to go through full body scanner check from next month.

They added that the manufacturers have been asked to tweak the machine’s specifications according to Indian standards.

The CISF will again conduct the trial and give feedback, the report said. The machine failed to detect a wallet, a pen and a handkerchief in 10,000 scans that were conducted during the last trail run.

A CISF official said that it was important to have a body scanner, but with the right technology. Therefore, different machines have been tried before finalising the best one, he added. Following objections raised by passengers over X-ray images, the manufacturers have been asked to configure the machine in such a way that it doesn’t reveal the body parts, the BCAS said.