Thursday, March 07, 2019

Soon, flyers will have to pay slightly higher security fee

New Delhi: Air travelers will soon be paying a little more to ensure they fly secure. The passenger security fee (PSF) of Rs 130 paid by each flyer to cover cost of security deployment at airports could see a hike. Domestic and international passenger may be required to pay Rs 20 and Rs 40 more, respectively, taking their PSF to Rs 150 and Rs 170.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which provides security deployment at 61 airports, has huge outstandings from airports. While the PPP metro ones owe it the largest amount, there are some dues from Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports. All airport operators have maintained PSF of Rs 130 decided years ago is inadequate to meet CISF deployment expense.

“The government then set up a panel to review this demand. The panel is looking at a hike of Rs 20 for domestic passengers,” said M A Ganapathy, CISF’s additional DG and incharge of airport sector. The hike for international passengers could be about Rs 40.

CISF DG Rajesh Ranjan on Thursday during the force’s annual press meet did not give the amount of dues from airports. “Airport operators are gradually paying. A decision (on PSF hike) is in fairly advanced stage,” he said. Last July, airports owed CISF about Rs 1,000 crore with nearly 80% of the dues being from Delhi Airport alone. Despite repeated attempts, CISF did not state the current dues from airports.

The force estimates that growing air travel and opening of new airports and terminals will mean nearly 20,030 personnel will be required at those places. “CISF will be deployed at three airports in Jammu and Kashmir (Srinagar, Jammu and Leh) very soon. The aviation ministry has given its approval for this and approval from home ministry is at an advanced stage. Once that happens, CISF will be at these three airports,” Ranjan said.
07/03/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

0 comments:

Post a Comment