The first of these contraptions is likely to be installed at CST by the end of this month, which will eliminate the need for checking passengers individually
Get ready to be under tighter security measures at stations falling on Central Railway (CR). CR will soon be installing 85 Multi-Zone Door Frame Metal Detectors at highly frequented stations. These are far more advanced than the currently used Door Frame Metal Detectors (DMFD). Part of the Integrated Security System, the new detectors will probably be installed by end of this month at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).
According to officials, the new metal detectors are similar to those used at airports, where staff is not required to check each individual passing through.
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“The passenger will walk below these advanced detectors, and everything, including his keychain will be displayed on the computer system attached with the detectors,” said a railway official. 35 detectors will be installed at CST railway station initially, after which other stations will follow suit. Six CR stations have been identified for installing these metal detectors, which include CST, Dadar, Kurla, LTT, Thane and Kalyan.
“These stations have been identified looking at the passenger traffic and level of risks involved at them. We found that large numbers of passengers pass through these stations and checking them individually or randomly will not be efficient. So the metal detectors have been bought, keeping minimum passenger inconvenience in mind,” said the official, adding that passengers usually get irate when they are checked manually.
Anil Tiwari, member of Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee (DRUCC) raised this issue at a DRUCC meeting on Tuesday, and it was later decided that these detectors would be installed.
“At present, the DFMDs are of no use and nobody bothers to monitor them either. With this, it becomes impossible to check each and every passenger. There are 70 lakh passengers commuting daily through the suburban section of Mumbai by local trains. We can trust the multi zone DFMD if the railways implement and act on it honestly,” he said.
According to the officials, installing 85 metal detectors should be done within the next 12 months, but the installation at CST will be done by end of this month.
While CST will have 35 new detectors, Dadar and Kurla will each have eight, with another 10 at LTT and 12 each at Thane and Kalyan. The total cost of this will come around 2.17 crore. The cost of current DFMDs is around 70,000, but the new multi zone metal detectors cost nearly 2.35 lakh.
Alok Bohra, Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, CR (RPF), said, “We are expecting these metal detectors to be installed at CST by end of this month. This will enhance the security system at the railway stations.”
Multi-Zone Door Frame Metal Detector
This is a microprocessor-based PC compatible metal detector. It has four multiple separate overlapping metal detectors in one frame. The coil structure enhances the metal detection process compared to conventional metal detectors. The microprocessor technology ensures fast and reliable data processing and operation, metal detection, sensitivity setting and threshold setting. It also detects both ferrous & nonferrous metals concealed on a person. u00a0
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