‘Curious’ visitors trigger security alarm at airport
Within 10 days, there were two security breaches at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). In both the cases, the persons who had illegally entered the airside, entered the area out of ‘curiosity’.
On Sunday morning, an alarm was generated by the Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS) and security forces rushed to the point from where a man scaled the boundary wall and jumped towards the runway.
“The man scaled the perimeter wall where the Terminal 2 is located. Our staff immediately rushed and caught him before he could move any further. He had come all the way from Narela and was handed over to the police,” said a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official.
The four-layered PIDS, with physical and covert detection systems — including taut wire, buried cable, CCTV cameras and radars — has been installed around the existing perimeter wall of the airport. There is a patrolling track all along the perimeter wall and it generates alarm whenever someone tries to scale the boundary wall.
But 10 days before this, a man entered the runway side from the technical gate, which is now considered as a potential threat. The boundary walls are not properly covered on that side and the issue became more sensitive when on April 13, a 30-yearold from Pilibhit, UP, started walking towards runway 27, before he was caught by the IAF.
Investigations revealed that the man had entered directly from technical area of IGIA and a portion of the area is not covered by concrete wall. A joint interrogation was also conducted but nothing suspicious was found.
Two days before the incident, the issue was raised at a meeting and the CISF had asked the airport operator to install highquality night vision camera.
“CISF raised this point during a review meeting held on April 11, 2017. Since the technical area is in the defence zone, matter would have to be decided by the defence and civil aviation ministries,” said a spokesperson of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), airport operator.
CISF said that CCTV would help them in monitoring the movement as someone can come to the main runway side from the technical area.