Handbag stamping at six more airports to end from June 1

The CISF has decided to end handbag stamping for domestic flyers at six more airports - Chennai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Trivandrum and Guwahati from June 1 - CISF Director General O.P. Singh said.

Singh told IANS that a week-long trial at five more airports - Varanasi, Goa, Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Pune - will start from June 5.

The Central Industrial Security Force's chief took the decision soon after successful implementation of the facility at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Cochin airports where handbag stamping was ended from April 1.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) had on February 23 sought the ending of stamping at the seven big airports.

The CISF DG however said the handbag stamping is only stopped for domestic flyers.

Passengers from airports where stamping of hand bags has ended can look forward to faster - and better - screening of hand bags. Security check lines will move faster and a person just stamping hand bags earlier will now be free to focus on screening.

--IANS

rak/vd