New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS): To improve safety standards, country's civil aviation regulator has started to conduct alcohol detection tests on personnel largely working at the airside of top ten civilian airports of the country.

The airside area of an airport is primarily used for aircraft operations.

As of now, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, has conducted test via "Breath Analysers" on ATCs, aircraft maintenance and aerodrome operations personnel amongst others.

The tests were conducted randomly at top ten civilian airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Lucknow and Guwahati.

"Further, we reiterate our commitment to complete this journey by implementing 'Breath Analyser' examination at all the licensed airports of the country by 31st of December, 2019," the DGCA said in a statement on Saturday.

"As per our estimate, it will involve around 30,000 employees largely working on the airside of the airports and out of these, 10 per cent shall be randomly checked for alcohol every day."

"In the month of October, we had 14 such cases of BA positive and till date, 4 such cases during the month of November."