No-seal trial over, hand baggage to be stamped again

NEW DELHI: Security stamping of hand baggage tags will be back at IGI airport from Friday. The Central Industrial Security Force had done away with the stamping on a week-long trial basis at seven airports, including IGI.
Senior officers said that during the trials, they successfully saved 15 to 25 seconds per check-in at all the six airports barring IGI.
DG CISF, OP Singh, said, "At all the airports, we managed to save 15 to 25 seconds per check-in, except Delhi.Over the week, we covered passengers of as many as 2,400 flights in Delhi. The inflow of passengers at the Delhi domestic terminal is so high that no time could be saved. However, the robust security surveillance system helped us maintain a tight vigil."
The DG added that after trials, which started on December 15, the practice was wrapped up and another set of airports, comparatively less crowded ones, will undergo a similar week-long check from December 26. These new airports will be Guwahati, Patna, Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur, Trivendrum and Kochin.
The 24 year old practice of stamping the baggage tags was put to rest by CISF in consultation with the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, at seven airports which include Mumbai, Delhi, Bangaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. This was done as a pilot project to check if the time consuming process can permanently be stopped.
"The trials have been successful. From the security point of view, we managed to focus more on passenger profiling. The security levels as desired and required were matched very well. The passengers also faced less hassles and support the decision of doing away with the stamping permanently. In January, a report will be compiled and permanent decision will be taken in this regard," Singh said.