New Delhi : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday inaugurated the newly established Aviation Security Control Centre (ASCC) at CISF Campus Mahipalpur in Delhi.
DG CISF Sheel Vardhan Singh, Tapan Kumar Deka, Director, IB, Zulfiquar Hasan, Director General BCAS, and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion. The CISF was inducted at airports for the first time in February 2000. After two decades, currently, CISF is providing security cover to 66 airports out of 134 operational airports in the country, including extremely busy and hypersensitive airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Jammu, Srinagar, and Amritsar. In order to monitor the security functions and resource utilization on a real-time basis, Security Operations Control Centres (SOCCs) are functional at every airport.
These SOCCs serve as nerve/nodal centre for the collection and dissemination of important information 24×7, especially during contingencies.
Over a period of time, due to increased air traffic and passenger load, current security scenario, evolving nature of threat perceptions and geographical spread of airports across the country, a need was felt for centralised monitoring of incidents and events occurring at airports to resolve them on a real-time basis.
To fulfil the aforesaid requirement, CISF has established a Modern state-of-art centralised Aviation Security Control Centre, integrating the SOCCs of all 66 airports.
The control centre is also equipped with cutting-edge technologies like a data centre, R-D Lab and War room.
The salient features of the centre include 24×7 real-time data monitoring and trend analysis of passengers and air traffic.
“This facility will provide realistic input about pax traffic at a given point of time and help in mobilising the resources for optimum utilisation. Some of the aspects covered are- Bomb threat calls, VVIP movement highlights, major incidents, pax clearance time, utilisation of security gadgets, queue management system etc,” the CISF said.
All 66 airports are now connected through VPN and IP telephonic systems and can be accessed at any point of time by the senior officers during the time of any contingent situation.
The CISF further said that the centre will also perform the trend analysis of real-time data to enhance the effectiveness of decision-making at higher levels.
“Research will be done on advanced and AI-based aviation security equipment available worldwide, with comparative analysis of different equipment and its applicability at Indian airports. Resolution of social media feedback by monitoring popular social sites,” it said, adding that the newly established ASCC will play an important role in its quest to play a greater role in aviation security and the future of the force.
