The Calcutta airport will almost double its X-ray machines by next summer to address the problem of long queues for security check in the domestic terminal, an official said on Tuesday.
The airport’s domestic section now has 14 X-ray machines to scan hand baggage of outbound passengers.
“We will be adding 12 more X-ray machines in the security hold area of the domestic section,” said C. Pattabhi, director of the city airport. “The first six will be installed before the winter schedule and the rest before next year’s summer schedule.”
Pattabhi said the number of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel would also be increased to man the additional X-ray machines.
The additional scanners, he said, are being installed to decongest the security hold area.
The Calcutta airport’s domestic section handles more than 50,000 passengers daily on an average, while the international section handles barely 5,000.
“The number of domestic passengers is still below the pre-Covid level of 60,000,” said Pattabhi, adding the authorities are expecting the flier count to touch the pre-pandemic level soon.
Earlier, it would take passengers an hour from entering the terminal to reach the boarding gate. The duration has since reduced following certain measures such as the installation of inline baggage scanning and the introduction of DigiYatra.
After the installation of inline baggage X-ray scanning, passengers do not have to queue up for getting their registered luggage scanned.
Earlier, there would be queues in front of the terminal entry gates, too. Airport officials said the introduction of DigiYatra in April has resulted in faster check-in.
DigiYatra enables seamless movement of fliers through the airport terminal till boarding using facial recognition technology.
Around 40 per cent of the domestic passengers now use DigiYatra, said airport director Pattabhi.
On April 1, 65 passengers had availed themselves of the facility at the Calcutta airport. For some time, only 3 per cent of the passengers were using it.
Also, since many passengers now do web check-in, the long queues at airline check-in counters have also reduced, said officials.
The two points where long queues still take place are security check-in counters and the boarding gates, they said.
According to an official, the additional X-ray machines would help decongest the security check-in counters.