Security beefed up in Railway stations in the festival season
Posted on: 21/Sep/2017 3:08:58 PM
The Railway Protection Force informed that the security has been beefed up in all major railway stations including the Central and Egmore station, especially as it is expected that there will be huge crowds in the Railway Stations due to the successive holidays for the festive season,
Ayudha Pooja festival falls on 29th October. Vijayadashami falls on 30th October.1st October is a Sunday. 2nd October (Monday) is Gandhi Jayanthi. So, there are 4 successive government holidays. So, most of the passengers planning to visit their native places from Chennai, have booked their train tickets to start on 28th October (Thursday).
The reservations for berths, A/C 3rd Class, and A/C 2nd Class in the express trains for the Southern Tamil Nadu districts (Nellai, Kanyakumari, Muthunagar, and Ananthapuri) are already full. The waiting list for berth reservation has touched 300. The same situation prevails for the trains leaving for Kerala, and Coimbatore (Cheran and Nilgiri Express).
So, it is expected that there will be huge crowds of passengers in the Chennai, Egmore, and Arkonam Railway stations.
So, security arrangements have been beefed up in order to protect the safety of the passengers. It has been decided to deploy 440 safety personnel in the Chennai Railway Station, 235 in Egmore, and 215 in Tambaram from the Railway Protection Force and Tamil Nadu Special Police Force.
The vehicles entering these railway stations will be monitored by the metal detector. At the entrance of the station, metal detector and scanner testing will be done. Special identity stickers will be pasted on the passengers` luggage. Bomb detection squads will undertake to check in the coaches.
The Commissioner of the Chennai Division Railway Protection Force, Lewis Amudhan, informed that security in all the stations under the jurisdiction of Chennai division has been beefed up. Additional Protection Force personnel have been deployed for the Ayudha Pooja holidays. 6 special squads have been formed for this occasion. These will be deployed in stations as well as the trains.
Further, in order to streamline the crowd of unreserved passengers, they will be asked to stand in queues to be allowed to enter the coaches. The women Protection Force squads will be conducting thorough checks in the women’s compartments.
It is better for the passengers to arrive at the stations 1 hour in advance to avoid the last moment rush. In case suspicious articles are located in the station or the coaches, it should be immediately informed to the Railway Protection Force personnel.
