BENGALURU: To upgrade security at the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna (Bengaluru City) railway station, three watch towers are set to come up near Platform 10. The huge rush to the station from this entry following the opening up of the City railway Metro station from this side is also one of the reasons for the upgradation.
Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, Railway Protection Force, (RPF) M Suresh told Express these towers will be manned by the Railway Protection Special Force or the Quick Response Team (QRT) of the Railways.
The RPSF are already armed with the sophisticated AK series of guns. “They will also be equipped with a pair of binoculars,” he said. Or, the other option would be to deploy the QRT team. “Team members are already present at stations in civilian clothes but possess only pistols now. They could be provided bigger guns and asked to monitor from this spot,” the SDSC said.
Two of these watch towers are likely to come up in the yard area of the railway station and one along the M G Colony Railway Road. The locations are still being finalised between the RPF and top railway officials.
“There has definitely been a surge in passengers to the railway station from this entry after Metro opened up here. This is also a reason why security needs to be upgraded here,” he said.
Divisional Railway Manager, Bangalore Division, Sanjiv Agarwal, confirmed the request received from the RPF in this connections. “The towers will be set up shortly,” he said.
Divisional Railway Manager (Works) Lakshman Singh said each tower would roughly be around 25 feet tall. “The cost involved will not be much but a platform needs to be constructed for the security person manning it. Constructing this is going to take some time and prove to be a bit tough,” he said.
Suresh also said that the towers are vital since both Bengaluru City and Yeshwantpur stations figure in the list of major stations in the country that require Integrated Security System. As a result 71 new CCTVs too have been installed here, he pointed out.
“Compound wall with barbed wire fencing and vehicle security system are other important aspects for such stations,” the Commissioner said. When asked about the additional rush caused due to Metro, commercial staff said that they sold tickets worth upto `40,000 on an average daily. “We can safely say an additional 1,500 use this entrance daily,” said a top official.