From Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: To ease security congestion at the entry points of the country’s airports, the Centre will open more gates, install more X-ray machines and deploy more security personnel.
Union Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel said this to his cabinet colleague Vincent H Pala when he raised the issue during a meeting between the two here on Monday.
The security congestion in airports has resulted in delay in flights causing harassment to thousands of passengers and affected the national exchequer.
“I have seen the problem during my recent visits that due to security congestion at the entry points of the Security Hold Area (SHA) caused by infrastructure constraints, delays are caused and flights often cannot depart on time,” Pala told Patel.
Various operating airlines had earlier requested that the SHA may be extended by adding additional boarding gates, X-BIS machines and frisking booths for both males and females along with additional CISF manpower. They also requested for additional operational parking bays.
This should be done in Gopinath Bordoloi airport in Guwahati, which has already been declared as an international airport, he felt.