Stamping of hand baggage to continue for those flying abroad

The hand baggage of passengers flying out of the country will continue to be stamped at all the seven airports where this practice will end tomorrow for domestic travellers, officials said here today.

Stamping of passengers' hand baggage at seven major airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, will be done away with from tomorrow. The other airports are: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Cochin and Ahmedabad.

However, this would not be applicable to the passengers flying out of the country. Official sources said it was being done as the aviation and security regulators of foreign countries needed to be informed about it in advance and convinced.

All the seven airports have international passenger traffic. In the meantime, arrangements have been made for smooth scanning of such luggage and CISF personnel, who provide security at these airport, have been briefed.

CISF Director General O P Singh had said yesterday the procedure of stamping and putting tags on hand baggage of passengers will be dispensed with from April 1 at these seven airports.

"We have put in place the required security systems that will help us in ushering in this passenger-friendly move," he had said.

The move, the CISF chief said, will enhance "passenger experience and provide hassle-free security environment to them".