The Union government has sanctioned a combined strength of more than 2,800 Central Industrial Security Force personnel to guard two soon-to-be operational international airports in Noida and in Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai, official sources said Thursday.
Sources told PTI that the ministry of home affairs, under whose command the CISF works, had sanctioned 1,840 posts for the Navi Mumbai airport and 1,030 the Noida International Airport in Uttar Pradesh.
The total CISF manpower sanctioned for providing a counter-terrorist cover to the two upcoming airports is 2,870.
The sanction of the Central Industrial Security Force manpower is for the first phase of operationalisation of the two airports.
The force's strength will be enhanced once these airports finish phase II, sources said.
The security units, to be headed by deputy inspector general rank officers, will take charge once the infrastructure to install security gadgets and other logistics get ready at both the facilities.
Being developed by the Adani Group, the Navi Mumbai International Airport project will be completed in five phases and will have a total handling capacity of 9 crore passengers per annum.
The first phase will have a capacity to handle 2 crore passengers per annum.
Commercial operations at this airport, second in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region after the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, is expected to begin by March-April, 2025. -- PTI