Pune: The Pune airport authority has installed two boarding pass scanning gates at the departure area, which helps to reduce the waiting queue to enter the security hold area. This facility has been provided on trial basis and is expected to become a permanent feature by the end of the February.

According to an official of the Pune airport, “The facility is under trial and soon it will be a permanent feature as the departure area will be extended. The purpose of this scanning-cum-automatic gate is only to nab those who want to enter with a fake ticket.”

Airport Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra was on a one-day visit to Pune airport last week. He praised Pune airport Director Ajay Kumar for installing it asked him for details to install the system at airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. The system was installed by city-based Siiddhey Instrumentation Private Limited. Yogesh Karandikar, Managing Director of the company said the gates were working smoothly and were able to scan all passenger boarding passes.

“We installed the gates at two points in the terminal building on January 10. They are working well. The main advantage of these gates is that they will reduce the workload on Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, who have to check the boarding passes of all passengers. There is a scanning device right next to each gate. Once a passenger scans the barcode on his boarding pass, the gates turn green and open automatically. While closed, the colour of the gates remains blue,” said Yogesh  Karandikar. “There has been a lot of stress on airport security lately and new technologies are being adopted. Last year, a passenger was able to enter the terminal building with a fake ticket. These gates can play an important part in strengthening the security at the hyper-sensitive facility,” an airport official said.