Mumbai: The government have now made it compulsory for 84 major airports in the country to install the full-body scanner to screen the aeroplane passengers. The government had asked to install them in a year and has issued a standard operating procedure for their use. The 84 airports include 26 hypersensitive airports and 58 sensitive airports.
The walk-in metal detector could only detect the metal objects and that it could not detect any other harmful object on the body of the passenger. The walk-in detectors are to be replaced by the body scanners. Before entering the body scanner the passenger will now have to remove all the metal objects, shoes, jackets, thick clothing.
The centre has said that 10% of the passengers will also have to go through a pat-down test at the airport.
“Walk-through metal detectors and hand-held metal detectors cannot detect non-metallic weapons and explosives. Body scanners detect both metallic and non-metallic items concealed on the body,” reads the circular on reasons for the change.”
When the concerns about the scanner were raised, it was said that the scanner would not generate naked images owing to its privacy filters. The images will be mannequin-like for all the genders and the threat will be highlighted with a yellow box on the surface of the image. The scanner is made up of millimetre wave technology which means that passengers won’t be harmed by the X-ray radiation. It is safe even for pregnant women.
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