Govt to get higher share of airport passenger fee

NEW DELHI: In Order to meet the escalating security costs at airports, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will now have to deposit the security component of passenger service fee (PSF) with the government. The security component of the PSF, which is levied and collected at present by AAI, is 65%.

The remaining 35% of the PSF will continue to remain with AAI for provision of facilities to passengers. Any gap in expenditure on aviation security may be met by the government, sources said.

Already, there is a proposal in the new draft civil aviation policy to make aviation security a direct responsibility of the central government.

The government is planning to enhance the timely availability of accurate meteorological information to ensure safe and regular air transport operations.

In this regard, AAI is likely to sign an MoU with the Indian Meteorological Department for effective co-ordination between them, government sources said.

A National Facilitation Committee (NFC) has also been set up under the chairmanship of the cabinet secretary to ensure better co-ordination among the Union government and various wings of the civil aviation ministry, namely the bureau of civil aviation security and the directorate general of civil aviation. The committee is expected to implement various security-related and other measures suggested by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The bureau of civil aviation security (BCAS) is planning to install CCTVs and intrusion-detection sensors at airports. Besides increasing the numbers of sky-marshals and CISF personnel at airports, the ministry is mulling the idea of setting up a National Civil Aviation Security Academy as well. The proposed academy will train security personnel and familiarise them with new-age technology.

In the wake of the recent terror attacks at airports, the security aspect has been dogging the governments the world over. With AAI forecasting the traffic at Indian airports to touch 205m by ’11-12, up from 73.3m in ’05-06, the security concern is only going to grow. The civil aviation ministry is introducing more technologies to maintain a tighter security at airports.For instance, Explosive Trace Detectors (ETD) and Advance Passengers Security System have already been introduced.