3,000 CISF posts at airports abolished; pvt security guards, tech tools inducted

The government has abolished more than 3,000 CISF posts as part of a major security architecture overhaul at Indian airports under which non-sensitive duties will be rendered by private security personnel aided by smart technology tools for surveillance and protection, officials said.

A 2018-19 action plan, jointly initiated by the Union ministries of civil aviation and home along with their field offices of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), respectively, is now being implemented across 50 civil airports.

The blueprint prepared by BCAS, the aviation security regulator, abolishes a total of 3,049 CISF aviation security posts to be replaced by 1,924 private security personnel and a parallel introduction of smart surveillance technology like CCTV cameras and baggage scanners. “The new security architecture not only leads to generation of more than 1,900 jobs in the aviation sector, it also gives manpower boost for CISF to meet their increasing aviation security duty requirements at existing and new airports that come under their security umbrella,” a senior security officer said.

The aviation security cost for airport operators will also stabilise as a manpower rationalisation analysis found that many non-sensitive tasks do not require armed CISF personnel and can be performed by private security guards even as certain areas within the airport terminal can be covered with the help of CCTV cameras, he said.

The private security personnel are being deployed at airports like in Delhi, Mumbai and others for non-sensitive duties like queue management, security assistance to airlines staff and passengers, and manning of certain entry and exit points within the terminal area, a second officer said.

The CISF will continue to render its core task of checking passenger credentials at entry, frisking of passengers, anti-sabotage drills, secondary ladder point checks and providing an over all counter-terrorist cover to the airports on the city and air side, he said.

“The decision was taken keeping in mind the availability of smart security technology at airports now and the architectural changes that can allow non-sensitive positions to be taken up by private security personnel,” BCAS joint director general (JDG) Jaideep Prasad told

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