TIRUPATI: The only baggage scanner at the Tirupati railway station has been lying defunct for the past four days and officials are unaware of it, virtually leaving the security of the railway station to the mercy of god.
Being a sensitive centre among the very few high alert stations in the country, Tirupati railway station was provided with high precision X-Ray baggage scanner to detect suspicious items and provide visual clues about arms and ammunition, suspected explosive items, smuggled goods that may be carried by passengers in their luggage. Only one baggage scanner was installed at the main entrance that leads to Platform Number 1 and out of the other two entrances, only one was installed with door frame metal detector (DFMD).
Five platforms
Tirupati railway station has five platforms and eight tracks running 45 pairs of passenger trains a day. The current footfall of passengers is around 30,000 to 40,000 a day. When TNIE brought it to the notice of Station Manager M Subodh Mitra, he personally visited the machine and enquired about the matter. He questioned one of the RPF constables, as in previous week’s report the said machine was reported functional and within a day what made the scanner defunct. Replying to SM’s query, the RPF constable said that due to power disruption, the UPS went down and CPU was turned off.
“We are not aware of restarting the system, hence we called the authorities concerned seeking help to rectify the problem and they are yet to attend,” the constable said. The Station Manager said that he would immediately urge the IRPF and other departments concerned to rectify the defunct machine and provide better security to the station.
DFMDs rarely used
The Door Frame Metal Detector installed at Tirupati railway station was being rarely used by commuters and visitors, as no security personnel were present there to ensure that everybody passes through it. The situation is even worse at another entrance, which has no metal detector. No manual checking also takes places here. The same was happening at the other entrance situated opposite the reservation office.