In a welcome relief to passengers travelling from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, the security check process is set to become easier.

Starting in May, passengers may not have to remove their electronic gadgets from their bags to scan them separately.

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What are the new facilities?

The IGI airport is expected to have full body scanners and Computed Tomography X-ray (CTX) machines

installed by May 2024, whereby passengers will not be required to remove electronic items from their hand baggage during security checks.

On Friday, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) Director General Zulfiquar Hasan said the deadline for installing the full body scanners and CTX machines at certain airports is being extended.

How this will benefit passengers

The deadline for installing the full body scanners at airports with more than 10 million annual passenger traffic is December 31. The last date for installation of CTX machines at airports with more than 5 million passengers is also the same.

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At a briefing in the national capital, Hasan said there have been some provisioning issues, and BCAS is in discussions with airport operators on the installation of the scanners.

“We expect the full body scanners and X-ray machines to come in May…,” he said, adding that both are expected to be installed at the Delhi airport by May next year.

How does the scan work?

Once CTX (Computer Tomography X-ray) scanners are in place, passengers will not have to remove their electronic gadgets from baggage during airport security checks.

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The Delhi airport is the country’s largest airport, and passenger traffic is expected to exceed 70 million in the current fiscal year ending March 2024.

This will make IGI only the second airport in India after the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru to have such a system in place.

These CTX machines will be integrated with Automatic Tray Retrieval System (ATRS) and full-body scanners, allowing passengers to carry their devices inside their handbags through security checkpoints.

At present, passengers have to remove and keep electronic items in a separate tray during security checks at airports.

The scanners used at airports provide a two-dimensional view of the objects inside hand baggage. Installation of such scanners is also expected to help speed up the airport security check-in process.

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