Mumbai Airport in Maharashtra is operated by a joint venture between (AAI) Airports Authority of India and GVK Industries-led consortium appointed in February 2006.
(GVK) – Gunupati Venkata Krishna Reddy, Hyderabad based leading infrastructure conglomerate was the first one to develop a brownfield airport project in ( PPP ) Public Private Partnership.
Mumbai airport handles more than 45 million passengers every year.
Incidents of Security breach have been reported wherein visitors accompanying the passenger’s gatecrashing the terminal 1 first and foremost periphery at Mumbai’s domestic airport, which is also popularly known as Santa Cruz Airport.
“Such instances have occurred not once but every now and then, however, security personnel cannot be given benefit of doubt due to oversight given the history of incidents witnessed at the said airport which could have faced serious implications involving human lives.”
While passengers enter the airport terminal, they are asked to display their photo id along with the air ticket.
The said task is manually performed by the security personnel.
At the said domestic terminal 1 airport in Mumbai, passengers are given privilege to partially enter the entrance gate and thereafter intercepted by security personnel for their photo id and air ticket.
Ideally, the periphery to intercept the passengers should be way before any passenger can enter the airport building.
Mumbai airport has been provided security cover by CISF.
In recent past, a survey was conducted by (CISF) Central Industrial Security Force where-in passengers rated CISF on four parameters in which waiting time at security inspection varied at different airports.
CISF claimed that feedback sought from the passengers at eight airports – Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Guwahati and Kochi revealed that only close to (0.20%) passengers found the overall services of CISF at the said airports as unworthy.
In a dialogue with few passengers, it was reckoned that security cover provided by CISF is far better at Delhi airport and desired similar security cover to be replicated at Mumbai airport.
CISF – Director General – O P Singh appears receptive to consider necessary security advancements however the sooner all such parameters are implemented the better it will be.
For the safety of passengers, a seamless security audit should be conducted not only at Mumbai airport but at all the airports to rule out any possible mishap.
In the beginning of January 2017, a mishap was averted at the Mumbai airport after receiving an input from Interpol about a bomb on board in an international bound flight which caused a delay of more than four hours.
Bombay HC in August 2017 rebuked Airports Authority of India for taking a serious issue of Mumbai airport security “very casually”. The Hon’ble Court warned AAI not to adopt a casual attitude.
Yeshwant Shenoy – Petitioner sought criminal action against AAI officers for allowing the height increase of buildings around Mumbai Airport.
The Bench comprising Justices Rajendra Savant and Sadhana Jadhav sought a written response from AAI and observed AAI’s written response to be perfunctory – effortless.
GLOBAL AIRPORT SECURITY BEST PRACTICES
Copenhagen airport in Denmark won the 2017 award for “World’s Best Airport for Passengers Security Screening” as voted by the customers around the globe in the World Airport Survey followed by Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan and Chubu Centrair Airport in Nagoya, Japan stood at the 3rd place.
The World Airport Awards are a global benchmark of airport excellence.
Airport security protocol is achieved through a combination of comprehensive due diligence, common sense and alertness.
Given the priority in ensuring safety and intercepting terrorist attacks, some airports across the world have deployed army personnel with expertise in detection and interrogation.
Recently, Dubai introduced face – scanning virtual aquariums lined with facial recognition cameras. It would scan faces through ( Virtual Walkways ) by mid-2018. While a new biometric exit system will be shortly introduced in the United States of America.
As far as facial recognition technology doesn’t invade human privacy, it is a welcome move to augment the advanced security mechanism.
SocialPost News shall be following up on the subject matter with the concerned authorities including the Ministry of Civil Aviation in larger public interest.
