TIRUCHY: The Indian Railways has chosen 202 railway stations, including 10 from Tamil Nadu, for implementation of the Integrated Security System (ISS). This was disclosed by Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain, while replying to Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Sancheti in an unstarred question on March 23 in Rajya Sabha.
In the reply, he confirmed that ten stations — Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Chennai Beach, Mambalam, Tambaram, Basin Bridge, Tiruvallur, Tiruchy, Coimbatore and Madurai will get the ISS facility. Therefore, these stations will get the facilities such as CCTV cameras, baggage scanners, bomb detection and other security equipment.
Though most of the stations from the State have CCTV cameras, experts suggested that the implementation of ISS would increase surveillance to more locations. For instance, the Tiruchy Railway Station is already having security surveillance on platforms and after implementation of ISS, the crucial points like parking areas will come under camera surveillance. These stations were selected on the basis of a high-level committee.
However, compared to other southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana, the State has the highest number of stations for ISS implementation. The list includes two railway stations (Vishakhapatnam and Tirupati) in Andhra, three (Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode) in Kerala, four (Mangalore, Bangalore, Yeswantpur and Mysore) in Karnataka, and two (Secunderabad and Hyderabad) in Telangana.