BCAs directs airports to beef up security

Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, Nov 13: Close on the heels of an anonymous car bomb threat letter received in Tiruchirapalli Airport and an alert from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States, the Directorate of Bureau of Civil Aviation security (BCAs), New Delhi, has sent a circular to all the airports across the country to further enhance the scurity, especially in the southern states.

Police sources told 'UNI' here that a copy of the circular was received by the Tiruchirapalli airport authorities by fax, today.

The Directorate has asked the Tiruchirapalli airport Director to convene a special meeting of the security committee during alert period to discuss the security preparedness and other security aspects. In addition to the regular security committee meeting being held during the first week of every month.

It recommended that perimeter patrolling should be stepped up instead of carrying it out only during the visit of VVIPs to the airport, besides thorough baggage checking, extra scanning and physical searches of passengers during the arrival and departure of aircraft. The Directorate ruled out monitoring of passenger movement through the Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) in Tiruchirapalli airport. But in view of limited air operations from here, it has urged the airport authorites to maintain round-the-clock vigil in and around the airport complex.

Meanwhile, Trichy airport director S Sree Kumar told UNI that airport security cannot be relaxed. ''We are not making any compromise on it,'' he said.

He said the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel were carrying out intensive patrolling and through checkups. He said they have taken the help of state police, who were conducting patrolling besodes monitoring the peripheral of the airport.

UNI