The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has received approval from the Public Investment Board (PIB) to install full-body scanners at India's hypersensitive airports. These scanners will help to make security checks quicker and error-free, and will also reduce passenger frisking time by half.
Full-body scanners will be installed in four airports across India, namely Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, and Goa. In July, the government issued a tender to purchase 131 full-body scanners and 600 new hand baggage scanners at a cost of over ₹ 1,000 crore. These scanners were expected to reduce the average passenger frisking time from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. However, the tender was later withdrawn as it needed clearance from the Public Investment Board (PIB).
The original plan to deploy 131 full-body scanners and 600 additional hand-baggage scanner devices across 43 airports required approval from the PIB, as any investment exceeding ₹500 crore falls within its jurisdiction. These airports encompassed locations such as Amritsar, Goa, Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Varanasi, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Raipur, Tirupati, Bhopal, among others. The overall project cost was projected to exceed ₹1,000 crore.
Officials say that millimeter-wave technology-based full-body scanners work by emitting low-energy waves that bounce off the body and create a three-dimensional image of the person. This image can be used to detect objects that are concealed on the body, such as weapons, explosives, or drugs.
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