Airport X-ray scanner tender under the lens; Minister, MP flag graft, favouritism
The machines supplied by an Indian company, alleged to be “unduly favoured”, have not met set standards. CISF and several airports have flagged concerns multiple times over the last few years
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A tender to procure 770 dual-use X-ray Baggage Inspection Systems (XBIS) for airports across the country has run into a controversy following complaints of corruption and attempts to favour a particular company.
Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale and Mathura MP Hema Malini have written to the Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu raising the matter. It has also come to light that XBIS supplied by the Indian company, that is alleged to be “unduly favoured”, have not met the set standards. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and several airports have raised concerns on multiple occasions over the last few years.
The tender for the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of dual view hand baggage and registered baggage XBIS at various airports in India, with one-year onsite warranty and seven years comprehensive annual maintenance contract with spares, was issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) with October 16, 2023, as the due date to submit bids. The estimated cost of the tender is ₹306.5 crore. These machines are meant to replace to the existing scanners at airport security check counters that have completed their service life, sources said.
One Indian company has qualified the bid while a Brazilian company, an established manufacturer which tied up with an Indian company to bid, was disqualified on technical grounds, a source said.
In a letter to Mr. Naidu dated June 28, Mr. Athawale wrote, “The company (Brazilian manufacturer) has accused and invited attention towards suspicion of corruption in evaluation of tender by breaking rules of Airports Authority of India by respect to offices knowingly… Grateful if you could kindly issue directions to concerned to investigate case and make fair inquiry in order to avoid injustice with the above company at the earliest.”
Another letter to Mr. Naidu by Ms. Hema Malini on June 27, said, “I also feel serious irregularities in evaluation, and undue favour to some of the bidders by AAI, which needs to be investigated before placing the purchase order.”
The two letters as well as several complaints and performance evaluation reports on the earlier lot of machines supplied by the same company have been reviewed by The Hindu. These show the magnitude of the issue raising serious concerns regarding flight safety and security. Queries sent to the stakeholders, including the Ministry of Civil Aviation, did not elicit a response.
Through a tender issued in June 2021, the AAI procured 219 scanning machines from the company, in line with the efforts to promote Make in India. But several allegations of procedural deviation and favouritism were raised. Officials in the know, on condition of anonymity, said the machines were accepted despite deficiencies during their performance evaluation, which documents accessed also show. Of the total 219 scanners, 129 have been installed across the country – 22 in the western region, 33 in the north, 10 the northeast, 26 in the east and 38 in the southern region. In some airports, the XBIS have not been accepted because of very poor performance and not meeting the tender’s technical specifications and functional requirements during the Site Acceptance Test, one of the sources cited above said.
Very recently, July-end, reports were received from CISF at Delhi terminals showing severe malfunctioning, documents show. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has asked for comparative reports of different scanners installed at all airports, a source said.
For instance, a report from Vizag airport on December 24, 2021, says the resolution of visual display unit of these particular scanners is very high, so display of all images is very light in colour (organic/ inorganic or metallic) resulting in “inconvenience of screeners” to detect match sticks, electronic lighters etc. These machines show them in light orange while in other scanners “organic colour is of different density which is much easier to detect.”
In another instance, the CISF commandant sent a report to the airport director, Patna, on January 18, 2021, making several observations from a performance evaluation, some of which are, “Heavy items like keys, coins are not clearly visible. Ghee, oils and other liquids are not clear. Colour of items are different from existing established scanners.” Out of six tests conducted, test number five, speed resolution test, is not clear, the communication said.
Documents show that during the pre-tender evaluation phase, at least on four occasions between November 2020 and December 2021, the CISF has communicated the under-performance to AAI. Similarly, Kolkata, Vizag, Patna, Udaipur and Indore airports have reported issues, documents show. All trials are recorded and the evaluation would be available on video, which can be accessed to ascertain any deviations in procedure, officials noted.
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