Railways to strengthen anti-terror measures: Batra

New Delhi, Nov 29 (UNI) With terror attacks on Indian Railways becoming both 'potent and real', a top mandarin of the Railway Board today said his ministry had decided to recruit around 3000 additional Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel on an immediate basis to reinforce the security system for railway passengers and premises.

''We have sent the proposal to the Finance Ministry to to recruit 2,680 additional RPF personnel to increase the visibility of security personnel in the railway system,'' Railway Board Chairman J P Batra said.

Mr Batra was addressing an international seminar on ''Growing Challenges of Terrorism with special reference to the Railways,'' jointly organised by Indian Railways and the Paris-based UIC (International Union of Railways).

Once approved by the Finance Ministry, the proposal would substantially increase the strength of the RPF, which has at present 67,056 personnel.

In addition, the Government Railway Police (GRP), which comes under the purview of state governments, comprises 37,000 personnel.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad has already announced a plan to expand the RPF by recruiting 24,000 more personnel in the Force.

Mr Batra said the Railway would expand Rs 300-400 crore this fiscal to procure and install equipments like CCTVs, hand-held metal detectors and dog squads at major stations.

''On an average, the Railways have to incur, on a recurring basis, around Rs 1.25 to Rs 1.50 lakh on the recruitment of an additional security personnel.'' He said 3500 express trains are now being provided physical escort, but it accounts for only 30 per cent of the total fast and express trains.

''We have not been able to provide escorts to all the trains because of resource constraints,'' he added.

Pointing out the entry regulation at stations is not feasible in view of sheer volume of passengers and vastness of space, Mr Batra said such an experiment at Churchgate (Mumbai) station crumbled within 12 minutes of its introduction recently.

''We are now adopting non-invasive measures, including greater use of dog sqads, which has proved effective in the railway systems of other countries.'' Making a strong case for coordination among various intelligence units, he said the Railways needed ''actionable intelligence'' to effectively deal with the menace of terrorism.

In this connection, he referred to around 2000 terror attacks on the railway system the world over.

''The attacks on city trains in Mumbai, London, Madrid, Moscow and Tokyo are a pointer to the fact that railways across the world have become vulnerable to terrorist designs,'' he said.

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