Stamping of hand luggage tag suspended

(File Photo)

The practice of security stamping of hand baggage tags of domestic travellers at the Tiruchi international airport has been dispensed with from Tuesday on a trial basis for a week.

However, stamping of hand baggage tags of international passengers proceeding to foreign destinations by different airlines from here continues.

The temporary dispensation of the age-old practice pertaining only to domestic travellers boarding from Tiruchi is based on the direction from the Central government.

Airport sources told The Hindu that the hand baggage of domestic travellers would only be scanned at the Security Hold Area (SHA) henceforth.

However, stamping of hand baggage tags being done by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at the SHA has been dispensed with on a trial basis for seven days from October 24 to October 30, senior officials said.

The trial measure is being done to check the system, and a detailed report in this connection would be forwarded to the competent authority in New Delhi, the sources said.

At present, domestic flights are being operated in the Tiruchi-Chennai sector daily by Jet Airways and Alliance Air. While Jet Airways operates three ‘ATR’ type aircrafts every day in the sector, Alliance Air operates one.

The sources said the practice of security stamping of hand baggage tags had been withdrawn earlier in other international airports in phases following the Centre’s directive. Tiruchi airport comes in the fourth phase with respect to dispensation of the practice-albeit on a trial basis

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/stamping-of-hand-luggage-tag-suspended/article19915431.ece