Tight security for Aero Show

Bengaluru, Jan. 5: Augment security and infrastructure in and around the Yelanka airbase have been beefed up for the forthcoming five-day biennial Aero Show. In the backdrop of 26/11, the defence ministry has turned the Yelahanka airbase into a fortress. The Aero show will begin from Feb 11. Union govt is likely to spend around Rs 20 crore for the sake of security.

“The defence ministry is likely to do away with manual screening of vehicles and visitors to the show. As it was becoming too cumbersome to check each vehicle that comes to the venue, the ministry is planning to install huge modern electronic screening machines to scan vehicles," sources said.

The ministry is also planning to cut down the number of car passes to be issued by the department. Only vehicles bearing car passes will be given entry into the venue. Nearly two lakh people are expected to visit the show every day. Over 330 companies from 50 countries and 230 from India including armament majors from several countries including the US, UK, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, Ukraine and the Netherlands are expected to take part in the show this year. Besides these, ambassadors and top-ranking defence personnel of participating countries will be invited to the show, sources added.

In order to regulate the people visiting the aero show, the ministry would raise the entry fee. The ticket price which was Rs 750 last year would be raised to 50 per cent more this year.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)