Real-time trials of full-body scanner start at Delhi Airport's Terminal 2

Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), on Monday, in line with the directive of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) announced that it has started trials of the full-body scanner at the Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminal 2.

DIAL, which is a joint venture formed as a consortium between GMR Group (54 per cent), Airports Authority of India (26 per cent), and Fraport AG & Eraman Malaysia (10 per cent each), has installed a full-body scanner at the security check area for trials.

Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, DIAL, in a public statement, said, “...we have deployed one of the advanced full-body scanners at the [Delhi International] airport. It takes care of passengers’ privacy during security checks and hardly has any impact on their health. After successful completion of trials, and evaluation of results, DIAL would install such scanner as per BCAS directive.”

A full-body scanner is a device that detects objects without making physical contact or breaching the privacy of passengers. Moreover, unlike the metal detectors, full-body scanners are also able to detect non-metal objects that are hard to detect with the conventional door frame metal detector.

By scanning passengers at the airport using a full-body scanner, one can reveal anything hidden beneath their clothes and thus reduce random pat-downs and strip searches, which ultimately helps personnel from an uncomfortable situation and speed up security checks.

The GMR Group, in a public statement, stated that “the trials would be conducted on a real-time basis i.e. passengers would have to pass through it during their security check before moving to the security hold area.”

The new scanner installed at Delhi Airport is a millimetre-wave-based scanner, which also has medical approvals regarding health risks, and completely answers privacy issues, claims the company.

The company also revealed that the real-time trials would be carried out for a period of up to 60 days, during which feedback from the BCAS, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), DIAL, and passengers would be taken, examined, and evaluated.

After the completion of trials, the findings would be shared with regulatory bodies for evaluation and the further course of action would be decided accordingly, it added.

In addition to this, the door-frame metal detectors would remain in place for special category passengers like those who are wheelchair-bound or cannot physically pass through the full-body scanners.