Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey said on Friday India was the only country other than North Korea to not allow Wi-Fi facility in aircraft, while hitting out at security agencies for being "unidimensional."
"India is perhaps the only country other than North Korea, which do not allow in-flight Wi-Fi services. Even international airlines flying over India have to switch off Wi-Fi when they travel over India…security agencies are still not convinced," he said.
He said that cost of security was bleeding the airport operators financially. Mr. Choubey said, the Indian Air Force controlled two-thirds of Delhi's airspace, causing flights to hover above for long, which led to the wastage of fuel and escalated airfare, and that “civil aviation needs to be harmonised with the IAF”. He was speaking at a seminar on international aviation security organised by National Security Guard (NSG).
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UDAN scheme
The Secretary said security at the new airports inducted under the recently announced regional connectivity scheme UDAN would be “airport specific”.
"Under the Udan scheme, there are 33 airstrips built during World War-II which had goats grazing in them. We are trying to have a template of an aircraft centric security, rather than [that of] the entire airport... so that it is secured at the time of boarding and arrival. I cannot afford to have over 100 security personnel for 30-40 passengers, if I do not find balance between growth and security, growth will come to an end," Mr. Choubey said.
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“At many international airports, the road runs right under the runway...[and] aircraft on the top. In India, we don't permit this as somebody can put a bomb and blow up the tunnel....we are exploring whether we can have bomb-proof tunnels," said Mr. Choubey.
The Aviation Secretary said that though intelligence agencies had “veto power”, they should look for innovative solutions.
He said the cost of deploying one Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable at airports was ₹1 lakh per month and it makes a huge financial strain on airport operators. "The cost of security forces is to be reimbursed by the airport operator. Only 15 of the 115 airports operated by Airport Authority of India (AAI) are making profit, one of the significant reasons for losses (of airports) is security, airports will be bankrupt," Mr. Choubey said.
As reported by The Hindu earlier, the official said they were testing a pilot project at Hyderabad and Bangalore airports to let "low risk passengers" breeze through the green channel by waving their phones at "electronic gates."
"Right now we are working on a template for seamless transition through the airport. If you have ticket on your mobile phone, wave your palm on a reader connected to the airport system and electronic gates would open. The system would be linked to Aadhaar and airline database… security agencies will have the passenger's profile and would know where all he has travelled in the past 5-10 years. This will be used for risk based passenger profiling and a person complying with it will not have to undergo physical security checks," he added.