4 more airports to get CISF security cover soon

New Delhi: At least four more airports in the country, including those in Shirdi in Maharashtra and Jamnagar in Gujarat, are expected to be brought under the armed security cover of paramilitary force CISF soon. The other two aerodromes are in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.

According to officials, the final sanction for entrusting the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) with security cover at these airports has been obtained from the Union home ministry sometime ago, but the deployment of the force has been delayed due to certain issues.

Some issues related to security infrastructure are pending and these are expected to be resolved soon, they said. The Shirdi airport, they said, could be the first to have the armed security cover by early next month, like 59 civil airports that have a CISF cover in the country at present.

The CISF is the mandated national security force that provides an armed cover to airports against terror and other sabotage threats. The force has a special aviation security group (ASG) that looks after the task. The CISF is responsible for ensuring that the civil airports are safe against threats such as hijacks and bombings.