UP Police to have separate unit for airport security

NEW DELHI : The Uttar Pradesh Police is set to have a separate unit for airport security as about a dozen airports under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) are set to be operational this year. With Ministry of Civil Aviation wanting the local police to guard the airports that will be operational under RCS, UP police have started training of 350 personnel for aviation security.

NEW DELHI: The UP Police is set to have a separate unit for airport security as about a dozen airports under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) are set to be operational this year.

With Ministry of Civil Aviation wanting the local police to guard the airports that will be operational under RCS, UP police have started training of 350 personnel for aviation security. The personnel will later become part of the industrial security force, which UP government is planning to raise on the lines of CISF.

In the second round of RCS bidding, eight airstrips in UP have been selected for the commercial operation. In the first round, airports under CISF cover were selected but the ministry wants CISF to withdraw from these airports.

“With the scale of airport operations we are excepting in coming time, it is important to have trained personnel for aviation security. We will get our personnel trained from CISF. Beside this, for industries in UP, we are planning to have a separate force, which will be part of UP Police but will not be part of law and order duties,” DGP (UP) OP Singh said.

Singh said that a separate force for industries, metro and airports will improve the security in these sectors.

“There are 4,000 industries in UP, mostly near the NCR areas. We have metro coming up in many cities and about a dozen airports are expected to be operational this year. If we start using UP police personnel for these jobs, they won’t be able to focus as installation security requires specific training,” Singh added.

In the second round of RCS, civil aviation ministry has announced Aligarh, Allahabad, Azamgarh, Bareily, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Morabadad, Muirpur (Korba) and Shrawasti that will be connected to other cities.