No handbag tags at all airports from Dec-end

New Delhi: Come December and all airports in the country would be free from handbag tagging practice. According to a senior official of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), most of the airports have already done away with handbag tagging and there are only a few airports left where this practice is still on.

"The airport operators are in process to establish BCAS mandated security infrastructure at the leftover airports and once it would be completed, the handbag tagging practice would also come to an end," said a senior CSIF official on the sidelines of a curtain raiser conference on the occasion of International Aviation Security Seminar beginning from Tuesday.

"We are not supporting handbag tagging at airports as it's not a better way to utilise our resources. The practice has already been removed from all major airports. The work to install modern security equipment, including CCTVs, scanners, etc by airport operators are in full swing at all the leftover airports and we are hoping that it would be completed in another few months," the official said, adding that so far, the system of stamping of hand baggage tags has been dispensed off from the 48 airports in six phases.

"Prior to doing away with handbag tagging, we run a trial at all the airports for a few weeks and after finding that an enhanced number of new gadgets, CCTVs and security arrangements has been put in place, we start the process of doing away with the tagging and stamping of domestic air passengers' hand baggage," the official said.

The CISF on Monday said that they are organising a global aviation security event that begins Tuesday and will see participation from 18 countries. The event will see participation from all stakeholders and will discuss best security practices related to aviation across the world.