The next time you catch a flight from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), be ready to pass through a full body scanner. Or refuse it early enough.
As of now, going through the full-body scanner is only voluntary as the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) feels that some people may be uncomfortable with the full-body image it produces.
Here’s all you need to know about it:
- The machine scans a person in few seconds when he or she stands in stationary position at the designated spot inside a box, which is connected to a monitor, and analysed by a trained CISF personnel.
- The scanner works by way of ‘targeted search’ and looks out for prohibited items that can be concealed in the body like liquid gels, plastic items, ceramics, cutters, recording devices and mettalic and non-mettalic items like knives and other weapons.
- In case, there is some suspicion about a flier, he or she will made to undergo full body frisking, also called pat down search, by a CISF official, else they can just walk out of the scanning box to catch their flight.
The machine can handle around 250-300 fliers in an hour and its operating system and software can be tuned as per the requirements of Indian security protocols.
