Police’s fancy wireless sets fail underground test

The much-fancied Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) handsets — the specialist professional mobile radio and the two-way receiver — provided by Delhi government to various security departments, including police, do not work well in the underground stretch of Delhi Metro.

The much-fancied Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) handsets — the specialist professional mobile radio and the two-way receiver — provided by Delhi government to various security departments, including police, do not work well in the underground stretch of Delhi Metro.

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This was revealed by the preliminary report of the disaster mock drill conducted by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) at 11 Metro stations on Saturday.

Tetra sets had been launched amid much fanfare before the CWG to ensure all agencies are connected on a single platform.

The sets had collapsed in the February drill too. “More details will emerge once the army submits its audit report next week,” DDMA chief Vijay Dev said.

The drill also failed to simulate a realistic disaster scenario as passengers were asked to evacuate stations 10 minutes before it began.

“This time, the drill was to check the response time of various agencies. Next time, we’ll check their real-time reaction as we won’t give them prior information,” Dev added.

Sources also complained that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) kept pressurising Delhi government officials to resume operations.

“In case of an earthquake, rescue evacuation and anti-sabotage checks need to be done before starting operations again. But before our men could check the tracks, DMRC started pressurising us to allow them to resume operation. Only when we threatened them of criminal action did they relent,” said a senior Delhi government official.

DMRC, however, denied this allegation. “We cooperated fully with the authorities. We wanted to resume the service at the earliest so that commuters do not suffer,” said Anuj Dayal, DMRC spokesperson. “We had also carried out all the necessary checks within 15 minutes before resuming services,” he said.

Passengers who were forced to leave the station agreed that the drill was far from reality. “Every agency from the police, fire brigade to ambulance were stationed outside the Metro station. How can they check the response time?” wondered Vishal Kanojia, a commuter.