Indian airports will need 300 CT scanners over the next 5 years: Smiths Detection Systems

Body scanners will do away with the need of patting down passengers after a primary screening through the walk-through metal detectors.

India will need to upgrade around 300 computed tomography (CT) machines at its airports over the next five years, Smiths Detection Managing Director Vikrant Trilokekar told Moneycontrol on October 6.

Smiths Detection is one of the world’s largest threat detection and security screening equipment maker.

"The upgrade requirement for CT in India is currently over 300 units in the next 3-5 years," Trilokekar said, adding that Indian airports were expediting the acquisition of the equipment to comply with the latest Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) requirements.

The BCAS has directed non-Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) airports to upgrade scanners from single view to dual view by March 31, 2024.

Body scanners will do away with the need of patting down passengers after a primary screening through the walk-through metal detectors. Body scanners will allow "clean" passengers to walk through and frisking will only be necessary for others.

In September, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) received clearance to install full-body scanners at four airports in the country, including Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, and Goa.

BCAS had ordered all hypersensitive and sensitive airports to replace door frame metal detectors (DFMD) with full-body scanners by March 2022, back in November 2021.

The process of acquiring these scanners got delayed by more than a year, and on September 13, the AAI finally received clearance from the Public Investment Board (PIB) to install full-body scanners at these four airports.

"Over 90 percent of major airports across India use Smiths Detection technologies," Trilokekar told Moneycontrol.

In the past 20 years, Smiths Detection had deployed more than 5,000 units across aviation, ports, urban and defense segments.

Trilokekar also said that India is a strategically important market for Smiths Detection.

Trilokekar urged the government to consider exemptions for its Make in India initiative particularly for niche and critical equipment with limited requirements.

"The in-country demands are sometimes not practical to shift an entire supply chain effort to a geography," He said. Finding a reliable partner, supply chain support, and assured demand were key challenges for niche equipment makers.

"India should not lose on quick induction of global technologies which are needed to make its urbanisation a smooth experience for the first-generation of the urban populace," he said.

Smiths Detection has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bharat Electronics Limited for the manufacture of advanced X-ray screening technologies in India, he said.

BCAS in April 2019 directed that 84 hypersensitive and sensitive airports should have full-body scanners by March 2020 in place of DFMDs. Other airports were to get these scanners by March 2021.

In 2019, AAI issued a tender to purchase 198 body scanners but the process was delayed due to various factors including the COVID-19 pandemic.