Amritsar, January 20 In the wake of heightened threat perception to the civil aviation sector ahead of the Republic Day celebrations, entry for the visitors, except passengers, at the Sri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport (SGRJIA) was banned from today. As per the alert issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation (BCA), visitors’ entry will be banned till January 30. SGRJIA Director Manoj Chansoria said, “As per the alert issued by BCA’s Director General, the sale of visitors entry tickets has been stopped.” It has been learnt that even movement of vehicles has been restricted while the CISF has deployed more combatants. Security has been beefed up in and around the airport and the passengers have been informed to reach the airport well before their scheduled flight time as the intense security checks may consume time. Paid entry to the departure lounge has also been banned. Passengers have been barred from entering the departure lounge to see off their relatives. The standard operating procedure has been placed in totality and even the entry of vehicles has been restricted. Vehicles engaged in pick and drop service can not remain in the airport and no vehicle can arrive at the airport’s terminal building. Besides, a space away from the airport building has been earmarked for parking purpose. He added that everything was under watch. Many other security measures were also initiated in this regard. The Punjab Police have also beefed up security on the approach road connecting the airport to the city. Earlier, the strategically-located Amritsar airport had been used as a halt point for hijacking by Islamic and Sikh terrorists in the past. It may be recalled that Indian Airlines Flight 814, popularly known as IC 814, hijacked from Kathmandu (Nepal) by the terrorists of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in 1999, was halted at the local airport for re-fuelling.

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