Need for augmenting CISF strength at airport felt

Tiruchi has more overseas flight services than domestic ones

Amid steady rise in the number of overseas flights and spurt in international and domestic passenger traffic at the Tiruchi international airport, the need for augmenting manpower strength of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel has been felt by the authorities concerned.

A resurvey for augmenting CISF strength has been taken up with the higher ups at Chennai. Having direct connectivity to select destinations in South Asia, South East Asian and West Asia, Tiruchi is a unique non-metro airport with more overseas flight services than domestic ones.

The CISF personnel deployed at the international airport are entrusted with the task of providing security and surveillance round-the-clock at the airport including the sensitive operational area.

The State police take care of the city side of the sprawling airport.

Airport sources said the present strength of the CISF personnel deployed at the Tiruchi airport was around 300. The last time a resurvey was done was in the year 2009.

However, since 2009 there has been a steady increase in overseas flight movements, say airport sources. Presently five international carriers – Air Asia, Air India Express, Malindo Air, Tiger Airways and Sri Lankan Airlines – operate daily service from Tiruchi to different destinations.

In addition to this domestic flights are being operated daily to Chennai by the Jet Airways and Air Carnival. Sources said over 15 international flights are operated every day with majority of them flying with good patronage. The departure and arrival of international passengers exceed 3,000 on an average every day.

The number of international passengers alone handled at the airport was over 10 lakh during the period April – February 2017. In respect of domestic passenger traffic, the figure was over 1.5 lakh from April – February 2017.

The combined total of international and domestic passengers handled from April to February 2017 was 12.47 lakh, according to Airports Authority of India statistics. Tiruchi airport is way ahead of Coimbatore and Madurai airports in the State in respect of handling overseas flight and international passengers.