How secure is Bengaluru International Airport?

How secure is Bengaluru International Airport?

K.V. Subramanya

Bangalore police unable to provide minimum security owing to shortage of staff

BIA police station has only one Inspector, one sub-inspector and 18 constables

Two Hoysala patrol vehicles are not in working condition

— Photo: Photo: G.R.N. SOMASHEKAR

Overburdened: Policemen attached to the BIA station performing various duties besides providing security to the airport and 28 surrounding villages.

CHICKBALLAPUR: Even as Bangalore’s vital installations and IT companies are high on the terror radar, the State Government has not ensured a foolproof security to the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) at Devanahalli.

While the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) takes care of the airside security, providing peripheral security to the airport is the job of the Bangalore City police. The BIA and its surrounding areas fall under the jurisdiction of the BIA police station situated at Devanahalli town, some 10 km from the airport. But, the BIA police have not been able to ensure even a minimum security to the airport due to acute shortage of staff.

The BIA police station has only one Inspector, one sub-inspector and 18 constables/head constables. Four posts of sub-inspectors, around 40 posts of constables/head constables and all the sanctioned posts of assistant sub-inspectors are vacant.

In all, only 20 policemen are attached to the BIA station at present and they work in two shifts performing various duties besides providing security to the airport and 28 surrounding villages. Practically, six to seven policemen would be available for one shift, sources in the police told The Hindu.

When this correspondent visited the airport on three different days this week, there were hardly any policemen found on the entire stretch of the nearly eight km flyover from the trumpet inter-change, located on National Highway-7, to the terminal building.

While a police picket would always be posted at the Bangalore-side entrance of the flyover, no policemen are found at the Chickballapur-side entrance of the flyover that leads to the terminal building. As policemen hardly screen vehicles bound for the airport, one can easily drive up to the terminal building without any hurdles.

Once the BIA started commercial operations five months ago, the police were screening vehicles at random. Of late, hardly any checking takes place, said some taxi drivers, who make several trips to the airport daily.

Asked about the absence of policemen on flyover and the areas surrounding airport, an officer said the policemen on Cheetah motorcycle patrol the flyover. Although the BIA station has five patrol motorcycles, all of them are not being used for the want of staff.

“We are doing our best with the available resources. Every policeman at the BIA station is working four hours more than his shift hours. On the other, two Hoysala patrol vehicles provided to the BIA station are not in working condition from the day one,” the officer said.

The sources said that although two platoons of City Armed Reserve (CAR) and one platoon of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) are stationed near the airport, they were of a little use. The services of the reserved policemen are used on “need-basis” and most of the time they are in the vans. Their training and duties are such that they cannot be used as civil policemen, the sources added.