With the increase of flight operations the police department strengthened security at the Ganna-varam airport. Bomb disposable squad, Quick Res-ponse Team, dog squad, double guards have been drafted at the Gannava-ram airport.

The strength has been increased from merely 10 security staff to nearly 50 personnel during the last two days. The commissioner of police, Mr N. Madhusudan Reddy, told this newspaper on Wednesday that quick Response Team would get special training to counter the terror activities.

With the introduction of Airbus services between Vijayawada and New Delhi six months ago the Airports Authority of India and the police depar-tment are taking extra security measures. Beca-use, the terrorists could hijack the plane and div-ert it to other countries.

The Airbus flight has more fuel capacity compared to smaller aircraft and can fly to longer distances. So, there is a security threat to the bigger aircraft. Hijacking of Air India flight to Kandhahar more than a decade ago is fresh in the memory of police officials.

Till one year ago, only Kingfisher operated services from Gannavaram airport. Now, SpiceJet, Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher are operating services from Ganna-varam to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and New Delhi. Proposals are also being made to launch flight operations to Mum-bai and Kolkata viz Vizag. The passenger traffic also crossed more than 50,000 per year during the last few months. So, the city police decided to strengthen the security to check any untoward incident.

Closed circuit cameras will be installed very soon in the airport. The city police are holding talks with Airports Authority of India for the installation of CC cameras. Circ-le-inspector Mr Ramakri-shna is the new incharge of the airport security. Mr Ramakrishna is assisted by a sub-inspector rank officer. Double guards will be on duty for the aircraft during landing. Dog squad consists of six members and a dog trainer has been drafted.