Airports Authority of India’s plan to procure 198 body scanners for its airports across the country has hit a roadblock after it had to withdraw a tender bagged by a Chinese company, Nuctech, following the standoff at LAC last year.
Nuctech is dominant in border-control and security screening technologies globally and is partly owned by the Chinese government and once run by former Chinese president Hu Jintao’s son, Hu Haifeng, according to international media reports.
In April 2019, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) — the aviation security watchdog — issued a circular requiring 84 hypersensitive and sensitive airports to install full body scanners within a year to replace walk-through metal detectors. The same year, following a global tender, AAI had decided to award the tender to Chinese company Nuctech.
“After a government advisory last year barring purchases from bordering countries, we have withdrawn the earlier tender. A new proposal has been sent for…