Bangalore, March 27:
Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) in co-ordination with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) hosted the first CASP-AP (Cooperative Aviation Security Programme – Asia Pacific) specialized quality control workshop at the airport.
Raja Srivastava, IPS, Additional Commissioner, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, New Delhi and M N Chaturvedi, Consultant, Ministry of Civil Aviation, attended the five-day programme as observers from the Govt. of India. This workshop was facilitated by John ‘Hondo’ Gratton and Graham Lockwood, CASP-AP Bangkok.
This is the first time a workshop of this nature has been conducted in India and BIAL is the first airport in India to host this workshop.
The main objective of this workshop is to ensure compliance with the international aviation security conventions, ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and related guidance material by enhancing the aviation security capabilities of the participating states and administrations.
It also aims to achieve a greater degree of harmonisation in civil aviation security matters by creating a CASP-AP Civil Aviation Security Standing Structure (CASS) for AVSEC information exchange, technical assistance, co-operation and co-ordination, as well as for the training of aviation security personnel. Delegates from Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal attended this five-day workshop on Specialised Quality Control.
Over the past 10 years this programme has been regularly conducted by the ICAO to airports to address quality control. This approach is substantially different from the previous training activities and has found to be a successful model of capability increase for smaller States in aviation security related fields.
The workshop commenced with two days of instruction on the requirements of a National Civil Aviation Security Quality Control Programme. The reminder of the workshop was conducted in an open forum with group activities. This five day workshop provided an opportunity for the participating countries to draft their individual quality control programme, taking into account their AVSEC legislation and their National Civil Aviation Security Programme.
This workshop is the first phase of the three-phased approach towards the implementation of Aviation Security Quality Control in the States. This workshop will be followed by visits to individual States to further fine tune the draft programme. The final Phase, will include instruction on implementation and the use of guidance material such as inspectors checklist, audit tools and data collection methods.
The programme which concluded yesterday has been well received by the participants and has generated a very mature (95%) completion of the National Civil Aviation Security Quality Control Programme.
