No stamping of hand baggage tags at airport

Hyderabad: Hand baggage tags will not need to be stamped at the pre-embarkation security check points at seven airports including the Hyderabad International Airport from Friday. Experts said this was a step towards eventual biometric identification of passengers at airports.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation and the Central Industrial Security Force cleared the system after carrying out two pilot projects, one of them for 15 days in December.

After reviewing the results, the civil aviation department on Thursday issued a circular stating that the stamping system would not be needed at the Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kochi airports. A CISF official from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport said the force had not received the orders from either the director-general or the civil aviation department. “As soon we receive the orders, we will implement it,” he said.

He said that during the pilot project, the CISF found that there was no need to security stamp the baggage as sophisticated technology including scanners and CCTV cameras were in place. “The present system of stamping of the hand baggage tag at the pre-embarkation security check points ... shall be dispensed with from immediate effect,” the Bureau of Civil Aviation said in a circular. “Airport operator shall ensure that the requisite monitoring system is maintained all through at PESC points,” the BCAS said. Last year, the authorities had started trial runs with respect to doing away with security stamps on hand baggage tags at these seven airports.