Second Covid wave hits operationalisation of full-body truck scanner
AMRITSAR : The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India has further delayed the muchawaited full-body truck scanner system at the Integrated Check Post (ICP), Attari, which facilitates the country’s cross-border trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan, from getting operational.
The scanner, which was installed in 2019, will help the customs department easily detect narcotics, counterfeit currency, and arms and ammunition hidden in trucks bringing goods through the transit route.
The manual checking of vehicles by the customs officials with the help of sniffer dogs is not foolproof.
Officials of the Land Port Authority of India (LPAI), which is tasked with operationalising the project, see no hope of starting the system until the Covid-19 situation gets normal in the country. “The scanner is all ready for operation. In January, a team of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) visited the ICP to inspect the scanner. The board team was to come here again to hand over certification before putting the scanner in use. As the the coronavirus situation has worsened in the recent days, there is no hope of the team visiting the site,” said ICP in-charge Sukhdev Singh.
Another LPAI official said, “The scanner emits high radiation. The AERB team will check the level of radiation before giving us certification for use for six months. Once we get certification, the final trial will be conducted by the customs officials.”
The customs department had conducted a trial after the scanner was installed in November 2019, but did not get the desired results. Sukhdev Singh said, “A technical glitch occurred in 2019 which was repaired early this year. Now, there is no technical issue with the scanner.”
A customs official said, “For now, it is easy to manage for us as only import from Afghanistan is allowed through the transit route. But if the trade with Pakistan opens in future, it would be difficult to frisk hundreds of trucks in a short span of time.” “The operation of the scanner is deliberately being delayed. It is matter of national security and should be dealt with priority,” said Anil Mehra, an Amritsar-based trader.
The truck scanner project costing Rs 23 crore was announced in March 2017 by then Union minister of state for home affairs Kiran Rijiju. Of the five truck scanners imported from the US, the first was installed at the Attari ICP.
The Centre had sanctioned such scanners on the border at Poonch-Chakkandabad and UriSalamabad in Jammu & Kashmir, on the India-Bangladesh border at Petrapole in West Bengal and on India-Nepal border at Raxaul in Bihar.