Mahim station turned into a fortress for President's visit

Mumbai, July 18 (UNI) Commuters had to face a great deal of hardships as the police cordoned off the Mahim station area on western railway in view of the visit of the President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam there later this evening.

The police had thrown a tight security ring around the station, cordoning off the whole area and not allowing anyone to enter without a proper pass.

Journalists, who had reached there to cover the event, were also inconvenienced as those without a proper pass were denied entry and the police were checking and frisking each and every person who wanted to enter the station.

The police had installed metal detectors all over the station and were also using sniffer dogs to search for any explosive.

Commuters, waiting to board trains from the stateion, had to undergo many hardships and those who wanted to buy tickets, were finding it difficult to reach the ticket counters through all these checks.

Dr Kalam is visiting the Mahin railway station this evening, one of the sites of the serial bomb blasts of July 11 to pay homage to the blast victims, by observing a two-minute silence at 1824 hours which, incidentally, is the time when the first of the seven blasts occurred here on July 11.

Meanwhile, the police have also totally got platform number one vacated and the trains passing through this platform have been diverted to platform number 3 for the President's visit.

The by-standers who were thronging the platform to get a glimpse of the President and other VVIPs have also been told to move to platform number 3 from where they can see the programme.

The President will be unveiling a plaque in honour of those people who died in the serial bomb blasts at 1824 hrs, the time when the first blast rocked the city on the fateful day of July 11.

Around 200 people had lost their lives in the blasts, while more than 700 people sustained injuries.

UNI ST-GS PM VD RS1911