No handbag tags from tomorrow

New Delhi: Stamping and tagging of the handbaggage of fliers at seven major airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, will be done away with from April 1, the CISF said. The other airports include the ones in Cochin, Kolkata Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

The Central Industrial Security Force will stop stamping and tagging hand baggage at seven big airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, from April 1 in a bid to facilitate and provide hassle-free security environment to passengers.

Other airports included in the new baggage security system include Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Cochin and Ahmedabad.

According to CISF director general O.P. Singh, the system of stamping and putting tags on hand baggage will be stopped from April 1 at seven major airports as all required security systems were in place.

The CISF said the move will help “enhance passenger experience and provide hassle-free security environment to them.”

The decision was earlier announced by the aviation security regulator Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, but the CISF wanted to first have proper security infrastructure at the airports before the scheme could be rolled out without any glitches.

The DG said CISF personnel at airports have been informed and trained about the new security protocol, and that he himself had seen the preparations in Bengaluru airport on Wednesday.

Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju also tweeted that there would be no more stamping of hand baggage in seven airports from now on.