No more baggage tag !!

How many times have you found yourself at the gate of your flight, only to be told by the airport security that your hand baggage tag is not stamped and leading to a mad dash towards the security check point for a re-scanning of your hand baggage ? Well, thanks to the initiative taken by he Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), that has the mandate to monitor and manage airport security in India, that is a thing of the past at most major airports in India. As of last count 17 airports in India have done away with this requirement.

Now the "no baggage tag stamping" move is being extended to 10 more airports in India - which are Amritsar, Chandigarh, Dibrugarh, Managalore, Nagpur, Pune, Ranchi, Trichy, Udaipur and Varanasi airport.

Unfortunately this move is limited to just domestic travel. For international travel, passengers still need to get their hand baggage stamped. Personally I haven't traveled to any other country yet where hand baggage is stamped at security and I wish this would stop in India at all airports and for all travel. This is long overdue along with the stopping of boarding pass stamping. That is another time wasting process that needs to go out of the boarding area.

And while we are on the subject of eliminating non essential activities, another one to consider is the scanning of luggage while entering the airport. Most newer airports of India, like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad have done away with the process. Unfortunately Kolkata airport decided not to move ahead with the times and is still stuck in another era of asking passengers to haul their luggage to scan, damage the locks and your luggage with pesky security stickers and straps. Hope to see this change implemented in all airports in India soon.