India considers nationwide facial recognition network for airports

India’s Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) wants to deploy facial recognition cameras across all major Indian airports. It comes as part of a proposed national data fusion center in Delhi, senior officials said this week.

CISF Director General Praveer Ranjan said the system would link airport cameras to a central database designed to flag fugitives and persons of interest using government records. The proposal, now before the Ministry of Home Affairs, would also connect footage from roughly 150,000 CCTV cameras installed across CISF‑protected facilities.

CISF is an armed police force under the Ministry of Home Affairs, charged with providing security to large institutions, whether owned by the state or privately. Its duties include guarding sensitive government buildings, the Delhi Metro and providing airport security.

The first phase of the proposal would see six major airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata — equipped with cameras capable of facial recognition, reports The Hindu.

Data from these systems would feed into the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) and be cross‑checked with intelligence platforms such as NATGRID, which aggregates information from multiple government ministries and agencies.

A CISF official told the newspaper the integration aims to strengthen “real‑time monitoring, suspect identification and support to law enforcement agencies,” with cameras positioned at key choke points such as entry and exit gates. Installations have not yet begun.

India already operates the National Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS), used by the National Crime Records Bureau to track criminals, identify the deceased and locate missing persons. Delhi Police have previously used AFRS during public order operations, which drew criticism from digital rights groups including the Internet Freedom Foundation, which warned of risks to civil liberties and the potential for mass surveillance.

Ranjan said the proposed fusion centre would mark a major expansion of CISF’s surveillance capabilities: “In the coming days, we plan to integrate about 1.5 lakh [150,000] CCTVs installed in units under CISF security cover.”

The home ministry has encouraged states to make broad use of NATGRID, which can access a wide range of personal and transactional data, ranging from Aadhaar and driving licence records to airline manifests, bank information and flagged financial transactions. The CISF request would be one of India’s most extensive deployments of facial recognition technology in civilian infrastructure if approved.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  biometric database  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  India  |  national security