Eight years after 26/11, Mumbai railway stations remain vulnerable

middayrsquos Rupsa Chakraborty shows the metal equipment in her backpack which went undetectedIn 2008 when terrorists entered our city more than 100 Mumbaikars succumbed to their bullets in one of the deadliest terror attacks in the world Eight years on a day before 2611rsquos eighth anniversary can we say that we are prepared to thwart such an attack midday conducted a test drive of the security system in place for the cityrsquos lifeline mdash its railway stations We visited five main termini mdash CST Dadar Bandra Kurla and Mumbai Central mdash to check if security measures there are strong enough to catch someone entering a crowded platform with guns and other weapons All failed spectacularlyWe kept ironmade car repairing equipment in a backpack and passed through metal detectors at each station carrying it Needless to say we entered without any hitch We also got inside the premises through other means to avoid detectionIn their defenceSenior divisional security commissioner DSC of Central Railway Sachin Bhalode said ldquoWe have kept metal detectors and bag scanners at each terminus Also we randomly frisk passengersrdquoWhen midday informed him that none of the metal detectors as well as the bag scanner at CST are functional he accepted it and said We are aware of it A belt of the scanner has blasted we are repairing it As far as the detectors are concerned due to shortage of staff we have to keep one or two deactivated at timesrdquoldquoIt is impossible to check all the passengers in CST As per our records 6000 pass through the gates every minute The metal detectors need 30 seconds to recover After 2611 we tried experimenting with the process but were unsuccessful There are loopholes but it is not possible to scan everyone random checking is the only wayrdquo he addedWestern Railwayrsquos senior DSC AK Shukla on the other hand said the stations on WR are monitored by CCTV cameras while all entrances have metal detectors along with hand metal detectors When midday told him about the sorry state of Bandra Terminus he said he has joined recently and would look into the security measures before making any commentGRP commissioner Niket Kaushik despite repeated attempts didnrsquot respond to calls or messagesLokmanya Tilak TerminusThe platform was crowded with passengers mostly from Bihar and UP There are three entry points here with metal detectors at each one mdash two were said to be functional and one not operational We first passed through the nonoperational one Though there was a working bag scanner there the police didnrsquot even bat an eyelid nor did they ask us to open our bag After this we proceeded to enter through the points having functional metal detectors And much to our surprise though the lights on these machines were on they didnrsquot catch the metal objects in our bag So in short none of the three were workingMumbai CentralAnother important terminus that gets thousands of passengers everyday this one has five metal detectors out of which one is nonfunctional Following the pattern we first entered through the one that wasnrsquot working and then through the functional ones Here the shock was that even after a functional one sounded the alarm for the metal in our bag one of the policemen sitting there bothered or asked to see the bagDadarTherersquos only one metal detector here itrsquos functional but no one uses it and no authority bothers to enforce its use either There is also a bag scanner here that one is nonfunctional and hence itrsquos again the same situation saunter in with whatever you feel like therersquos no one to stop you or check your belongingsBandraThis tony suburb with its celebrity residences is abysmally poor when it comes to security and infrastructure at its terminus The station doesnrsquot have a single metal detector or bag scanner And no person to do the checking eitherChhatrapati Shivaji TerminusDespite being one of the main targets during 2611 the security measures here are the worst All the metal detectors are nonfunctional as is the bag scanner We entered and exited with our metalladen backpack no questions asked This major terminus continues to remain a sitting duck for any terrorist another such attack