E-Paper
Bengal plans to beef up train security
On a day the West Bengal government mooted enhancing security in trains in the wake of the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express hijacking, central home ministry officials said such attacks were inevitable.
On a day the West Bengal government mooted enhancing security in trains in the wake of the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express hijacking, central home ministry officials said such attacks were inevitable.
In Kolkata, West Bengal Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen said the government was contemplating providing armed security guards in important trains passing through the Kharagpur-Jamshedpur tracks.
“Keeping in view the threat perception, measures such as providing armed escorts in major trains, pilot engines and sanitisation of railway tracks are now imperative.”
On Tuesday, armed Maoist-backed tribal activists seized the Bhubaneswar- New Delhi Rajdhani Express in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district. Central security forces were able to rescue the train only after a five-hour hostage drama.
Sen said 8 to 10 important trains pass through the Kharagpur-Jamshedpur stretch every day.
The track, which connects the railway junction of Kharagpur, 116 km southwest of Kolkata, to Jamshedpur in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district, had become vulnerable to incidents like the Tuesday’s hijack, Sen added.
Home ministry officials said it was impossible to deploy central troops in every train.
