When will we be proactive? Despite knowing that there could be a large influx of passengers from Japan, the government and the airport authorities have not put in place any contingency measures.
While many airports in South-East Asia and Europe have put in place contingency plans to ensure that those evacuated from the quake-hit Japan are free of any nuclear contamination, the Bangalore International Airport is still in deep slumber.
The airport has no screening mechanism to check if the passengers are radiated nor are there any measures to test the aircraft for radioactivity.
Though, at present, flights to Japan operate only out of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, other airports could be handling flights from Japan. For instance, a special flight with L&T Infotech employees and their family members will arrive in Chennai on March 18.
Similarly, airlines are also operating special flights from Japan. Air India has announced that it will be operating a Jumbo B747-400 aircraft which has a capacity of 424 passengers instead of the scheduled B777-300ER to Tokyo till March 19.
Despite knowing that there could be a large influx of passengers from Japan, the government and the airport authorities have not put in place any contingency measures.
The airport officials said that screening of passengers should be done by the health department and installation of scanners should also be initiated by the government. Customs officials stated that they have not received any directive from the health ministry to screen cargo materials.
Meanwhile, many airports in South-East Asia and Europe have put in place contingency plans to ensure that those evacuated are free of any contamination.
While, Malaysia’s airports are screening inbound passengers from Japan for radiation, Taiwan has installed radiation detectors at its airports.
At the Zurich airport in Switzerland, a Swiss International Airlines flight arriving from Japan was tested for radio activity. Though the test turned out to be negative, an airline official said it would from now on measure the radioactivity of all planes coming from Japan.
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