India airports plan to install full-body scanners

NEW DELHI: Airports in India plan to install full-body scanners in 2019 to speed up passenger screening but the move faces cultural and privacy concerns.

India has carried out trials of scanners and tweaked the software to take into consideration domestic cultural issues such as women wearing jewellery and sari, and metallic embroidery used on Indian wear.

“We will be issuing the specifications and regulations for active and passive millimetre wave body scanners by early next year. This is being done after their trial runs were conducted successfully,” Bureau of Civil Aviation Security directorgeneral Kumar Rajesh Chandra was quoted as saying in the local media on Friday.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which managed security at major Indian airports and key infrastructure facilities, had earlier sought improvement in scanners.

In the trials last year, scanning machines raised security alarm because of multiple folds in clothing when women wearing saris passed through them.

The machines are also reportedly configured to produce a generic body outline on the monitoring screen rather than a naked image of the passenger’s body.

Indian airports are making more investment in manpower and technology to improve passenger screening amid rising air traffic.

CISF chief Rajesh Ranjan said recently his force was working to make airport security “foolproof”.

“There are several lacunae in the existing security mechanism in several airports which need to be addressed,” he told a seminar on aviation security. - Bernama