nThe Union government has sanctioned a combined strength of more than 2,800 Central Industrial Security Force(CISF) personnel to guard two soon-to-be operational international airports in Noida and in Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai, official sources said Thursday.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA), under whose command the CISF works, had sanctioned 1,840 posts for the Navi Mumbai airport and 1,030 for the Noida International Airport (NIA) in Uttar Pradesh.  The total CISF manpower sanctioned for providing a counter-terrorist cover to the two upcoming airports is 2,870.

The sanction of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) manpower is for the first phase of operationalisation of the two airports. The force's strength will be enhanced once these airports finish phase II, sources said.

The security units, to be headed by Deputy Inspector General rank officers, will take charge once the infrastructure to install security gadgets and other logistics get ready at both the facilities.

Being developed by the Adani Group, the Navi Mumbai International Airport project will be completed in five phases and will have a total handling capacity of 9 crore passengers per annum. The first phase will have a capacity to handle 2 crore passengers per annum.

Commercial operations at this airport, second in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region after the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, are expected to begin by March-April, 2025.

The NIA greenfield facility is being built in the Jewar area of Gautam Buddh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh, about 75 km from Delhi, and will be the national capital region's second international civil aviation facility after the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.  It is also expected to get operational for passenger operations by April next year.

The CISF is the national civil aviation security force that guards 68 airports at present. It provides a counter-terrorist cover to these facilities, thronged by lakhs of domestic and international passengers every day.

The force frisks passengers, checks their baggage and undertakes anti-sabotage, counter-terrorist and counter-hijack checks in coordination with other agencies.