Security check no more a hassle! Body scanners to be installed at airports

To spare innocent passengers from physical frisking, airports in India will install body scanners from next year. According to a report, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) will soon come out with technical specifications of these scanners and then airports can install the machines.

 

The technology is used widely in the US. “We will be issuing the specifications and regulations for active and passive millimetre wave body scanners by early next year. This is being done after their trial runs were conducted successfully (at some Indian airports),” BCAS chief Kumar Rajesh Chandra told Times of India.

 

Benefits of body scanners at airports

 

— The scanners can add another layer of security at checkpoints besides metal detectors, explosives-detection systems and bomb-sniffing dogs. For example, a ceramic knife might not trip a metal detector and might not have an explosive scent for a dog to detect.

 

— Besides detecting non-metallic weapons, the machines hasten screening because a traveller moves through faster than a pat-down. 

 

— This technology could check spiralling security manpower costs. 

 

According to reports, the scanners will be customised for Indian ‘conditions’ so that it can penetrate the layers of clothes unique to the country — like chunnat (front fold) of a sari, lungi and pallus.

 

Airport operators are now waiting for BCAS regulations to be out so that they can swing into action.

 

How do millimeter wave machines work?

 

The full-body scanners are called "millimeter wave" machines. They bounce electromagnetic waves off the traveller to provide an animated image where a suspicious item might be located.

 

Full-body scanners at airport checkpoints in the US

 

While the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) insists on using the full body scanners to protect the country from terror attacks, critics challenge the use of devices over privacy and health concerns.

 

TSA deployed the machines and now uses 793 full-body scanners at 157 airports in 2016.

 

US airports have been using full-body scanners since May 2013.