Bengaluru international airport to get additional 1,700 CISF personnel

A fresh deployment of about 1,700 CISF personnel has been sanctioned by the central government for providing anti-terror cover to the recently expanded Bengaluru international airport, officials said on Sunday.

This will be in addition to the 3,500 men and women personnel of the paramilitary force already deployed at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in the Karnataka capital, they said.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the airport's Terminal-1 is engaged in frisking passengers, scanning their cabin luggage and providing a comprehensive armed anti-hijack and counter-terrorist cover, the officials said.

The Union home ministry recently sanctioned a fresh manpower of about 1,700 CISF personnel for the Bengaluru airport in addition to the 3,500 staff currently posted there, a senior security officer told PTI.

This was approved after a security audit was carried out by security and intelligence agencies in the wake of the operalisation of the new Terminal-2 of the airport, the officer said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in November last year inaugurated the KIA's Terminal-2, which is an eco-friendly facility constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crore.

The fresh deployment of personnel was required considering the fact that the passenger load on the airport will grow and more check-in counters and facilities have been created.

A similar addition of 1,400 CISF personnel was sanctioned recently by the Centre for the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.

The CISF currently guards 66 civil airports in the country and manpower rationalisation and augmentation at some other such facilities is underway, the officer said.