Security in Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad Airports have been beefed up on Sunday reportedly after police in Mumbai alerted the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security of India about a possible hijack attempt.
There are conflicting reports about the source or nature of the threat, but the Airport Security Coordination Committee held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the matter. ToI quoted sources saying, “A total of 23 people will be involved in the 3 hijacks which has been planned for Sunday.”
Speaking to The News Minute, G Chandramouli, Chennai Airport Director refused to disclose any details about the threat perception or the specifics of changes in security arrangement.
“I am not supposed to speak about that, Yes, there is an alert, and we have implemented all the contingency measures, which cannot be disclosed. This is a standard procedure - whenever there is a threat perception or a threat alert, we implement it,” G Chandramouli told TNM.
He added that for commuters, the only difference is that visitors’ entry has been banned.
“There should not be any problem. We have a written SOP (Standard operating procedure) which is common for every airport based on the level of threat perception. The changes may cause minimal delay here and there but it should not affect that much. If a queue usually gets cleared in 20 minutes, it might take 25 minutes. Otherwise, there will be no issues,” he added.
The official spokesperson of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad said, "This was a tip off from Mumbai. The Mumbai police got a message that three airports in India could have some issue. But the information is not clear. We have beefed up the security for now."
(With inputs from Aditi Mallick)