Railway Ministry identifies 185 stations as vulnerable

New Delhi, May 22 (UNI) The Railway Ministry has identified a total of 185 railway stations, including 17 metro stations, as 'vulnerable,' where security system is proposed to be substantially upgraded on a priority basis.

A ministry official said some of the stations, including Delhi Main, New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin, Chandigarh, Ambala, Moradabad, Hardwar, Lucknow and Varanasi, were highly 'sensitive and vulnerable'' from security point of view.

He, however, denied that all the Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains would be equipped with wireless Internet services free of cost for passengers in the high-end trains.

As part of measures to strengthen security system at all the important railway stations, he said entry and exit of these stations would be regulated.

Further, modern security gadgets, CCTVs and cameras, Deep Search Metal Detectors and scaneers are already being installed.

Also, passengers and their luggage are proposed to be checked at entry points with the help of hand-held and door-frame metal detectors. Frisking of passengers are to be done at entry of these stations by the RPF and GRP personnel. X-ray baggage machines are proposed to be installed for screening of baggage and parcel.

In the wake of the recent blast in the Samjhauta Express, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had rued the non-availability of equipment that could peep into a passenger's baggage and confirm the existence of explosives and other lethal objects.

''We are going to address the problem urgently,'' he said.

Sniffer dogs are being deployed for checking of coaches, parcels, baggage, station area and searching of explosives.

He said greater use would be made of hand-held metal detectors and door-frame metal detectors to conduct anti-sabotage checks in trains and at stations.

While access control has been introduced in coordination with the Government Railway Police (GRP), communication system of the RPF is being improved by providing mobile phones, walkie-talkies and Very High Frequency (VHF) sets.

There is also a plan to provide bullet-proof jackets and helmets to the RPF personnel.

The official said a sum of Rs. 121.63 crore had been allocated for sanctioned proposals during the financial year 2007-08.

Admitting that a desired level of compatibility between the RPF and the Railway Administration had remained a far cry, which was pointed out by a parliamentary panel, he said a mechanism had to be evolved to ensure that the two entities functioned 'more homogenously' for providing better security to railway passengers and premises.

''In fact, the report of the committee for integration of RPF with other departments of the Railways is under the active consideration of the Railway Board,'' he pointed out.

The committee had found that against the sanctioned strength of 6,31,536 staff in safety categories in Railways, there were 78,564 vacancies as in November 2004, constituting about 12.44 per cent of the sanctioned strength.

''Such a large number of vacancies in the safety categories certainly do affect the safety and operation of trains,'' it said, hoping that these posts would be filled up at the earliest.

UNI