Full-body scanners cleared, trials in Delhi soon

The government today decided to introduce full-body scanners at airports across the country in a phased manner to secure them against potential terrorist attacks. The US and Israel are already using full-body scanners at some of their airports, and more such scanners are on their way to airports in the US, England, Japan and the EU.

The proposal, cleared by a technical specification committee under the Ministry of Civil Aviation and comprising representatives from all security agencies, comes in the backdrop of a recent attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a Detroit-bound aircraft using explosives attached to his body. Security checks at Lagos or Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, where the would-be bomber boarded planes, failed to detect the explosives.

The scanners have been at the centre of privacy and health concerns for several years across the world. The panel has debated all these issues at length, a government official told The Indian Express.

"The full-body scanner will be installed shortly on a trial basis at the Delhi international airport," he said.

Security checks currently in place at airports across the country include, other than pat-down searches, Door Frame Metal Detectors (DFMDs) and hand-held device scans, which can detect only metal objects.

An estimated 125-200 full-body scanners might be needed for Delhi and Mumbai, India's busiest airports, the official said. Each scanner will cost around Rs 1 crore. "The cost will be borne by the private airport operator or the Airports Authority of India, as the case may be," the official said.

Full-body scanners use two basic technologies — millimetre wave and backscatter. The former type is manufactured by companies like L3 Communications; the latter by Rapiscan Systems, which has set up a joint venture with Secunderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Ltd.

Most new scanners to be commissioned in the US this year will employ the backscatter technology. The Indian government, however, is yet to decide on any one type. "At this stage, we do not wish to restrict the number of vendors," said the official.

"The trial runs will give us an insight into the failure rate of the equipment, if any. We can assess its performance at times of power fluctuation or outages at the airport and during extreme weather conditions, especially summers," he said. Based on the results of the trial runs, the committee will finalise technical specifications. A global tender will then be floated by the airports.