New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel on July 24 asked the government to look at the feasibility of setting up a specialised security agency for airports amid rising air passenger traffic.

Besides, the committee has proposed constituting a special airline wing to deal with police and courts in unruly air passenger behaviour cases and urged aviation regulator DGCA to enforce zero-tolerance policy for such incidents. These are among the recommendations made by the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which tabled its report in Parliament on Monday (July 24).

Out of a total of 353 units deployed by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), 66 units or 18.7 per cent are deployed at the airports, the panel said and added that the civil aviation sector is expected to grow at a faster pace and that will increase the need for manpower engaged in providing security at airports.

“The committee, therefore, recommends that the Ministry of Civil Aviation may examine the feasibility of setting up a specialised security agency for airports only, in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs,” the report said. There are 148 operational airports in the country. As per the latest official data, the country’s domestic air passenger traffic grew 18.78 per cent to around 1.25 crore in June compared to the year-ago period.

The Cost of Deployment (CoD) of CISF is paid by the airport management concerned, and in 2019, the ministry set up the National Aviation Security Fee Trust (NASFT), which remits the money for deployment cost to the security agency.