The Corporation of Hamilton is to pay $1.5 million towards the cost of an X-ray machine to scan shipping containers for drugs and guns.

The City is to pay half towards the device, with the rest of the $3 million funded by Government.

Currently all container searches at Hamilton docks are manual, but the new security system will scan each truck and container as it passes through the port, in a bid to eradicate smuggling.

City mayor Charles Gosling announced the Corporation's support at a public Board meeting into the 2010 Budget yesterday.

As a result of the new device, he said the entry and exit points to the docks would also have to be redrawn.

"The Bermuda Government has recently committed itself to providing a security system able to examine all imports coming in through Bermuda's docks by the end of 2010," he said.

"The Corporation has been asked to make changes to the access to the container docks to enable the placement of machinery capable of X-raying each and every container coming into and leaving our docks.

"Under the control of careful and trained technicians this will seriously affect the importation of firearms and illicit drugs coming in a few of the 40,000 containers arriving on our Island."

He said: "We are supporting the Government in its commitment to the people of Bermuda to increase security at Bermuda's docks."

The X-ray machine will scan each truck and container by sliding them along a rolling platform. Mr. Gosling said the procedure would take approximately five minutes for each vehicle.

He told The Royal Gazette: "There will be major changes as we will have to find a position for the trucks as they line up, off the streets so as not to impact on the city traffic. They will also need an area as they come off the scanning process, so we need new entrance and exit points."

The X-ray equipment was announced eight months ago by Public Safety Minister David Burch, who said at the time: "I am still not comfortable that the source of (drugs) importation in this country is being adequately addressed at the docks in Hamilton."

Collector of Customs Winifred Fostine-DeSilva said the US Government had also stipulated that from 2012 every container from Bermuda must be X-rayed.

An advert in the Official Gazette in October called for tenders for the device, to be installed next year. The advert stated it must be capable of scanning 48 ft containers, plus cars and small boats, and be able to detect small amounts of drugs, guns or explosives.

In the 2010 Budget, the Corporation of Hamilton has also allocated $1.5 million towards "more efficient" lighting at the docks. The aim is to provide a "safer working environment" as well as to reduce "light pollution suffered by our dock's neighbours".