IGI security agencies demand more CCTV cameras

“Letters requesting the installation of CCTV cameras outside terminals are being sent to DIAL ever since operations began at the new departure terminal,T1D,in April last year. There are four gates at T1D and the cameras installed at these gates only cover the immediate surroundings. There is a huge approach road that needs to be covered. There are also some grey areas inside the terminal,” a senior CISF official said. The international arrival and departure halls are also short of surveillance equipment,officials said.

A DIAL spokesperson,however,said there was no such shortage. “A sophisticated CCTV system is installed at Terminal 1D,which also adequately covers the terminal building as also the areas outside it,” the spokesperson said.

The CISF officials on their part believe surveillance equipment at an airport should cover all areas where passengers move. “The coverage should begin from the approach road itself. This would help us keep a check on thefts,like the one reported earlier this month. The thief could not be caught as the CCTV footage did not cover that particular area,which is right outside the terminal building,” said a senior official.

At present,terminal 1D has 280 CCTV cameras inside the building,but only five outside it. “The international terminal T2 is also equipped with over 200 cameras. But there are still a few grey areas,” an official said.

At the upcoming Terminal 3 of the airport,DIAL is planning to install as many as 4,000 automated CCTV cameras to support centralised monitoring.

The freak firing incident at the airport on December 5,2008,had also raised the demand of additional surveillance equipment. Officials said the CCTV cameras could not capture the movement of miscreants who reportedly fired bullets outside the terminal T2.