Dhaka airport security at risk: Survey team

Security at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport was at risk due to a shortage of fire-fighting equipment, floodlights, and poor CCTV camera coverage at night, a survey team has found.

The team, consisting airport, intelligence, civil aviation, and fire service officials, conducted a detailed survey of the airport late last year and submitted its report to Bangladesh's Home and Civil Aviation Ministries in December 2019, The Daily Star newspaper said in a report on Saturday.

A similar survey was conducted in April 2019 as well and the latest report said that the recommendations made in the previous report had been implemented only in part, putting the airport security at risk.

According to the report, there was a shortage of firefighting equipment in cargo village and export area. It termed the areas to be at risk.

Many tall buildings have been built close to the airport which also threaten airport security. The report mentioned that the previous survey had pointed out the issue, but nothing had been done in this regard.

It strongly recommended installation of cameras in the asphalt at four gates so that vehicles entering the airport could be scanned from underneath.

There were also dark areas in the 1,298-acre airport as the 57 floodlights could not cover every corner, The Daily Star quoted the survey report as saying, adding that CCTV coverage was also inadequate and many of them did not have night vision capabilities.

It recommended installation of night-vision CCTV cameras at a number of places and those be monitored strictly.

Captain Sajjadul Haq, former general secretary of Bangladesh Pilot Association, said the airport seems poorly illuminated but as the airport extension project was going on, hopefully things would improve.

He said lasers were very dangerous as a pilot could be temporarily blinded by them during approach.