SOP allows a security officer of the airlines to check passengers for 20 minutes through X-ray machine before boarding. It further says that there will be more than one security officer for such checking.
According to SOP, passengers will be in queue at the tarmac before going through a second screening by the AI security officers as passengers climb up the ladder.
National Aviation Security Committee (NASC) under Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) approved the SOP on Monday and handed it over to AI following a decision of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA).
“The process of permitting AI to have its own security at the TIA is now completed on our part after the approval of SOP,” said Loknath Gautam, chief of Civil Aviation Security Division at CAAN. The AI will shortly start deploying its security officers at TIA.
Then Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Hisila Yami on January 21, 2009 had given the permission for ´second screening´ of passengers before boarding the AI aircraft at TIA.
AI is the first airline to have its own security officers at the country´s only international airport. Officials said another Indian airline, Jet Airways, is in the process to get similar privilege.
CANN officials have declined to give the details of the SOP, arguing that such a document is highly confidential and is never shared to media. However, officials said it has detailed provisions on the number of security officers to be deployed, their responsibilities and the authority to be stationed in the sterilized zone of the airport.
The officials said that the SOP has made a provision that the security officers to be deputed in the airport won´t belong to India´s state security agencies but to the airlines. The security officials will have special aviation security skills.
Gautam indicated that there can be two to three security officers but refused to divulge the details.
“Only airline´s security officers will be allowed to screen the passengers with the help of portable X-ray machine,” Gautam told myrepublica.com.
Currently, Air India officials are allowed to carry out only manual-frisking of passengers at the ladder of the airplane.
CAAN officials claimed that the security officers are given permission for ´second screening´ of passengers only near the ladder point of AI, defending that such a checking has not been allowed to conduct at the sensitive security zone of the tarmac.
CAAN defended that the permission to deploy AI´s security officer at TIA was reached only after assessing the threat level to the airlines. “We don´t grant such permission to all airlines,” said Gautam.
The officials, however, admitted that security officers will have unrestricted mobility inside the sterilized zone after getting pass from the TIA.
Asked about the stay area of security officers when there is no checking, officials said they will stay at the office of AI inside the TIA.
India had long been asking Nepal for such a facility, arguing that India-bound flights from Kathmandu were under serious security threat, especially after the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 on December 24, 1999.
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