DGCA conducts alcohol detection test on airside personnel at top 10 civilian airports

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has started to conduct alcohol detection tests at top ten civilian airports of the country on personnel largely working at the airside.

The airside area of an airport is primarily used for aircraft operations. This move by the DGCA is to improve safety standards at the airports and as of now, the civil aviation regulator has conducted test via "Breath Analysers" on ATCs, aircraft maintenance and aerodrome operations personnel amongst others.

The tests were conducted randomly at top ten civilian airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Lucknow and Guwahati.

"Further, we reiterate our commitment to complete this journey by implementing 'Breath Analyser' examination at all the licensed airports of the country by 31st of December, 2019," the DGCA said in a statement on Saturday.

"As per our estimate, it will involve around 30,000 employees largely working on the airside of the airports and out of these, 10 per cent shall be randomly checked for alcohol every day."

"In the month of October, we had 14 such cases of BA positive and till date, 4 such cases during the month of November.