Sources at the airport said CCTV cameras are basic security equipment which should have been installed at the new terminal even before it was opened to international traffic two-and-a-half months back.
The recent bomb blast in Varanasi should wake up the Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials at Sardar Patel international airport, Ahmedabad, to the urgent need for close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the airport’s international terminal.
Sources at the airport said CCTV cameras are basic security equipment which should have been installed at the new terminal even before it was opened to international traffic two-and-a-half months back.
“There is no need to worry as there is no threat to the airport now but, in view of the terror strike in Varanasi and the terrorists’ emails that threaten Gujarat directly, nothing should be left to chance,” a source said.
The international terminal, which cost Rs300 crore to build, was made operational on September 15 this year. Earlier the inauguration of the terminal had to be postponed several times and each time the airport and AAI authorities had said that the opening had been delayed due to ‘technical reasons’.
The sources said the terminal still lacked in many things. However, insofar as security concerns are concerned, the delay in installing the CCTV cameras could cause the authorities much embarrassment some day. However, the airport director, Anuj Agrawal, said that everything had been finalised and the work of installing the CCTV cameras were in the last stage.
“The allotment of these cameras is not done for one particular airport but simultaneously for different airports across the country,” he said. “We have done almost everything, including the wiring. The terminal will soon have enough CCTV cameras installed at the appropriate places.”
The importance of these cameras for sensitive transit points like airports cannot be overemphasized. For effective surveillance, the arrival and departure of flights and passengers have to be recorded round-the-clock and the footages have to be stored for at least 30 days.
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