3 - Ministry of Civil Aviation

the current inadequacy of the training facilities; a regular Civil Aviation TrainingAcademy under the aegis of Bureau of Civil Aviation Society (BCAS) should be set up. Itshould be provided with adequate staff and infrastructure to train and sensitise the CISFpersonnel and.others involved in airport and airline operations.(3) The process of issuing Photo Identification Cards •(PICs) to regulate entry into theairport is beset with a number of problems, including that of shortage of infrastructure,complaints of delay, large number of entitlements and retrieval of lapsed PICs. TheCommittee recommends the following.a) The entitlements to perthanent PICs be reviewed periodically and its numbers maybe reduced as much as possible. As a matter of prudent practice, activities in theairport should be organised in a manner that reduces the man power requirementas much as possible. For example, grass-cutting could be mechanized.b) Efforts be Made to streamline the issuance of daily passes to visitors on the lines inMinistry 'of Home Affairs (MHA) and its numbers to be reduced to the minimumpossible;c) To overcome problems of delay at domestic airports, temporary passes may beissued by the Airport Director as in the past. (The BCAS may lay down the normsfor the same. Considering the inadequacy of the staff and balance of convenience,the validity of temporary passes may be extended from 15 days to 2 months but thenumber of such passes should be kept to the minimum);d) Resource crunch of the BCAS, which is authorised to issue PIC, needs to beremoved, as it is leading to delays. There is also a need to open more offices of theBCAS in different parts of the country;Daily token passes for workers and labour employed at international airports maybe issued by the Airport Directors even for more than three days if it becomesabsolutely essential;The retrieval of expired passes is a serious problem and BCAS may issue theregulations to make the sponsors rest nsible for the retrieval of such PICs.(4) The complaint regarding harassment of tourists and passengers outside the terminalbuilding by taxi and hotel operators and their agents, has defied solution for long. Oneof the reasons is the duality of control. Although there is usually a vast area on the citysideoutside the terminal, it is the local police,— and not the airport security — who havejurisdiction over that area. It is recommended that the Airport Security Police / CISFshould have jurisdiction over the areas in the immediate vicinity of the terminalbuildings and that they may be given limited police powers under The Police Act for thispurpose.(5) On-line baggage screening has to be introduced at all airports as per the ICAO• guidelines. At least, in all international and hyper-sensitive airports, this should be done10