Random checks at railway stations

Passengers with bags may have to put them through x-ray scanners, as security tightens

Suburban passengers carrying bags may soon have to undergo random checks at CST. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) will soon be installing an x-ray baggage scanner at the entrance leading to suburban platforms. This x-ray machine is presently installed at the main line entrance, and will be later shifted to the suburban platform entrance.

The x-ray machines are being installed as part of the Central Railways' plans to acquire two heavy-duty x-ray scanners, one for the main line at CST station and another one for the Dadar terminus. As of now, the RPF has only one x-ray baggage scanner at the main line entrance.

Keeping in mind the various sizes of the bags and the luggage carried by passengers, the Central Railway will acquire two heavy-duty x-ray scanners from the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) at a cost of Rs 25 lakh each.

"Passengers carry baggage and luggage of any size, including big cartons into the stations and the present x-ray machines do not have the capacity to scan such big pieces of baggage. We had to procure a large machine for the express and long distance trains," says a railway official. "The new machines also occupy a lot of space.

We can't put them in suburban lines. Not all the baggage of suburban commuters will be checked, random checks will be conducted by security personnel," the official said.

While initially the Central Railway RPF will install a heavy-duty scanner at CST and Dadar, it will be replicated at other major stations as part of the Integrated Security System (ISS) plan.