Airport has security gaps, NGO tells Rajnath Singh

City-based NGO Watchdog Foundation on Sunday wrote a letter to Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, alleging several security lapses at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai off late.

In the letter, a copy of which is with The Asian Age, Watchdog Foundation activist Godfrey Pimenta drew attention to a number of issues. According to him, the Sahar Elevated Road, located 10 m away from 10 huge aviation turbine fuel tanks of the airport, could lead to security hazards. Among the many large drains in and around Mumbai Airport, the one that passed under the airport tarmac posed a security threat as it could be accessed by the public and was unmanned.

“The city has faced several terror attacks in the past. Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) had said that the roadsides would be landscaped up to 1.5 metre and, if required, visual barriers would be installed. As a long-term measure, it had also promised shifting of the ATF tanks to a more secure area inside the airport,” read Mr Pimenta’s letter.

However, nothing had been done in the matter, he said. “With the elevated road open to vehicular traffic, our fear is that any object can be thrown at these tanks,” he added.

The letter also raised questions related to private security guards being stationed at sensitive points of terminal 2. “Cargo-carrying vehicles inside the Mumbai airport are checked by private security guards, who merely check challans and bills of entry etc, without actually scanning the contents of such cargo-carrying vehicles,” it read. The letter pointed out yet another security threat pertaining to the Air Traffic Fuel Complex of Indian Oil at Sahar — a canteen meant for ATF Complex staff that was frequented by the public and manned by private guards along with the Sahar police. “Being a vital installation, the same should have been manned by the Central Industrial Security Force,” said the letter.