Kolkata: The much-awaited inline baggage screening system (ILBS), which will eliminate the need to get checked-in baggage scanned by X-ray machines before they are deposited at check-in counters, became operational at the Kolkata airport on Tuesday with the soft launch of 3D scanning on one of the three portals in the international wing. The two other portals in the wing will become operational later this week, followed by soft launch of portals in the domestic wing next week.
“The ILBS facility will be completely operational in the international wing by February 17-18 and in the domestic wing by February 24,” Kolkata airport director Kaushik Bhattacharjee said after the launch of the system linked to portal H on Tuesday evening. Only one of the eight portals that caters to GoAir and AirAsia India passengers will get ILBS later.
Around 160 passengers on the Kolkata-Dhaka IndiGo flight were the first to avail themselves of the new system. The airline staff directed the passengers who arrived to board flight 6E 1858 to head for the check-in desks, bypassing the standalone X-ray machine.
Incidentally, the airport’s international wing had ILBS for two years before it was decommissioned for upgrade to the latest Computer Tomography X-ray (CTX) explosive detection devices last October. For the domestic wing, this will be the first time that passengers exiting Kolkata will get the facility.
Of the 250-odd checked in bags that were scanned in the CTX machines on Tuesday, 30% were ‘rejected’ by the device that is equipped to identify possible threats in a bag’s contents. The X-ray images of these bags were then checked by a screener, an airport employee, and the bags were then passed through standalone X-ray machines in the terminal basement before they were cleared for loading on the flight.
12/01/20 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India
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“The ILBS facility will be completely operational in the international wing by February 17-18 and in the domestic wing by February 24,” Kolkata airport director Kaushik Bhattacharjee said after the launch of the system linked to portal H on Tuesday evening. Only one of the eight portals that caters to GoAir and AirAsia India passengers will get ILBS later.
Around 160 passengers on the Kolkata-Dhaka IndiGo flight were the first to avail themselves of the new system. The airline staff directed the passengers who arrived to board flight 6E 1858 to head for the check-in desks, bypassing the standalone X-ray machine.
Incidentally, the airport’s international wing had ILBS for two years before it was decommissioned for upgrade to the latest Computer Tomography X-ray (CTX) explosive detection devices last October. For the domestic wing, this will be the first time that passengers exiting Kolkata will get the facility.
Of the 250-odd checked in bags that were scanned in the CTX machines on Tuesday, 30% were ‘rejected’ by the device that is equipped to identify possible threats in a bag’s contents. The X-ray images of these bags were then checked by a screener, an airport employee, and the bags were then passed through standalone X-ray machines in the terminal basement before they were cleared for loading on the flight.
12/01/20 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India
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