Dibrugarh, Sept. 12: Dibrugarh airport, situated in the easternmost part of India, is soon going to become stamp-free, as part of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS)'s decision to scrap the practice of stamping hand baggage to ensure hassle-free flying experience for air travellers.

Talking to The Telegraph this evening over phone, airport director Mughavi Zhimo said the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will launch a trial of the new system at Dibrugarh airport in the last week of September. Nine other airports - Amritsar, Chandigarh, Varanasi, Udaipur, Nagpur, Mangalore, Trichy, Pune and Ranchi - will be covered under the trial programme before they are declared stamp-free. Already 17 out of the 59 civil airports manned by the CISF have done away with the practice of stamping domestic passengers' hand baggage tags as part of the new protocol.

"It's just yet another feather in the cap of Dibrugarh airport, signifying the city's growing importance as an industrial, tourism and communication hub," said Nabajyoti Borkakoty, a social activist.

The airport director said, "We are going to start the trial from the end of September. Before that certain procedures have to be followed, security gadgets and logistics have to be put in place. We have to ensure that all security apparatus are in right order before the existing procedure is discontinued."

The trial run is likely to continue for a week or 10 days, before the new procedure is expected to roll out by early October.

Zhimo said three domestic flights currently operate from Dibrugarh airport - two by Indigo Airlines and one by Air India. A fourth addition is on the cards as low-cost carrier SpiceJet is going to introduce a flight on the Dibrugarh-Guwahati-Silchar route on October 3.

The airport situated at Mohanbari, 15km from Dibrugarh town, handles excess of 2 lakh air passenger traffic annually.