Hi-Tech Surveillance System To Be Linked To AAI Headquarters In Delhi Has Been Proposed For Chennai Airport
V Ayyappan TNN
April 1, 2009
Chennai: Peeping over the airport wall to catch a glimpse of aircraft landing and taking off will soon be a thing of the past as the city airport is planning to acquire high-end surveillance equipment as part of its efforts to upgrade security. With airports receiving more and more terror threats, Airports Authority of India (AAI) wants to introduce hi-tech gadgets to make surveillance in passenger areas as well as the perimeter fool-proof. Based on a proposal moved by AAI and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, the airport will soon install, among other things, state-of-the-art CCTVs inside and outside passenger terminals, sensors that can detect intrusion along the perimeter wall and sophisticated equipment for bomb squads. These surveillance systems will be connected to AAI headquarters in New Delhi for better co-ordination and review, a senior AAI official said. “CCTV and sensor data will be stored for a year so that they can be viewed again. Such systems in all airports will be linked together so that violations can be tracked and the culprits traced. This will also guarantee efficient crackdown on terror and criminal operatives,” the official added. At the moment, security at the airport is handled by 600 armed Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) who man all entry and exit points to passenger terminals and also the gates along the perimeter wall. Armed commandos are deployed at bunkers set up in front of the terminals whenever security is tightened following alerts. Hand-held metal detectors, baggage scanners and CCTVs are also used inside passenger terminals. In addition to this, an advance passenger information system, which allows real-time passenger screening by security agencies, became operational from last April. This allows international airline pilots to provide information about passengers and crew on board within 15 minutes of taking off from abroad. The airport is also planning to install surface surveillance radars to monitor movement of aircraft, cars and even people inside the airport campus. The radars, costing Rs 4 crore each, will have a range of 10 miles and will be installed at two spots inside the airport. The radars will be linked to 15 sensors that will be scattered across the compound. “These radars inputs will be linked to several monitoring agencies and will help detect movement of people or vehicles inside the airport,” the official said. At the moment, however, the security at the airport is fully concentrated on the city side. Not much attention is being paid to enhance perimeter security on the other side, especially at the spot where works are happening to extend the secondary runway across Adyar River. A portion of the compound wall of the airport has been pulled down to allow trucks transporting sand and soil from the construction site easy access to the city side. A wire fence has been erected and a gate has been installed, with a lone armed guard manning it. His job is to check whether the truck drivers have valid airfield driving permits. More than 400 workers pass through the operational area and more or less the same number working at the runway construction site. “They are given bulk tokens. The contractor collects all the tokens by informing airport staff about the total number of workers he intends to take inside every day. The token system has its drawbacks. Background checks are never done on the workers. So, the airport does not have any record of the number and the kind of people who are allowed to work inside the operation area,” an AAI official said. The official lamented the “lack of electronic surveillance and the presence of small shops and a non-policed deserted road close to the perimeter of airport.” “It makes it easier for intruders to sneak in. Earlier instances show that intruders were able to move around the airport campus without being spotted for sometime,” the official said. Another official, who was present during the questioning of one such intruder caught recently, said “the man was able to describe graphically the installations inside the airport, though he was not able to identity them.”
W H AT ’S B E E N P L A N N E D
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Passengers and visitors inside and outside terminal buildings will be watched through hitech CCTV cameras
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Bomb disposal squad will get gadgets such as bomb killer jackets and explosive trace detectors
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Perimeter wall of the airport campus will have sensors that can record intrusion and send out alerts
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Two radars to be installed to monitor movement of vehicles inside the airport’s operational area
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All surveillance cameras will be connected to AAI headquarters. Video recordings will preserved for a year
THE WAY IT IS NOW
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Conventional security drill, including manual screening of passengers and checks using handheld metal detectors, is done
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Passengers are screened for tickets and employees are supposed to display identity cards before being allowed inside terminal buildings
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Workers are given passes and tokens before they are taken inside the airport for construction work. No background checks done
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Perimeter security is handled by Central Industrial Security Force personnel. They man all entry and exit points along the compound wall
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Watch towers are installed from where guards keep an eye on the non-city side of the airport. About 600 CISF personnel on duty at the airport.
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