Security concerns voiced over direct baggage check-in at Metro stations

DIAL’s Chief Executive Officer for airport development,I P Rao,told Newsline: “We are putting in place a baggage reconciliation system to ensure foolproof security of the baggage,which would arrive at the airport in a separate compartment with sealed containers.”

To discuss issues relating to the direct check-in of the baggage at the Metro stations itself,a multi-stakeholder meeting was held earlier last week between the BCAS,DIAL,the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF),the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC),Reliance Infrastructure and the leading airlines operating at the Delhi airport.

According to the plan,the New Delhi and Shivaji Stadium Metro stations on the Airport-Express Metro Link will have direct baggage check-in facilities for passengers slated to take flights from the Delhi airport.

The plan,BCAS officials have said,will affect standard safety procedures followed across airports in the country. While the Delhi Metro is responsible for only the civil work on the high-speed Metro link connecting the city with the international airport,Reliance Infrastructure is handling other infrastructure related issues.

The major points raised by the BCAS at the meeting include concerns of ‘contamination’ of a passenger after being issued a boarding pass at one of the Metro stations. Security agencies stated apprehensions about the fact that it would be impossible to trace a passenger if he/she gets off at a certain Metro station after checking in his/her baggage and being issued a boarding pass.

“If a passenger who has been issued a boarding pass decides to commit a criminal offence,he/she will also have the boarding pass that will serve to ascertain false information about whereabouts,” sources said.

Individual airlines will be responsible for baggage check-in,which requires them to deploy additional manpower at Metro stations. No agency is,meanwhile,sure about who will take up responsibility for the security of the baggage,sources have said.

BCAS sources said the direct check-in plan does not ensure foolproof checking of passengers or their baggage at a time of increased threat perception,with the approaching Commonwealth Games in October this year.

DIAL officials have,however,said methods have to be put in place to accommodate the new plans and make the system passenger-friendly. Chairperson of the Airports Authority of India V P Agrawal told Newsline: “The security agencies would work out some means to enhance security if there are still some issues to be resolved. An element of risk is always there.”

Whenever the plan gets a security go-ahead,it would be handled at the airport by hi-tech systems being put in place by DIAL. Once the baggage reaches the airport,it would be taken inside the terminal on conveyor belts through a tunnel and the bar codes on the passengers’ boarding pass and on the baggage would be checked to ensure safety,sources said.

The plan