Authorities fear terrorists could sneak into Howrah station through Hooghly

The recent terror attacks in Mumbai where terrorists sneaked through the sea have alerted the Railways to take special measures to make the Howrah Station secure. Fearing that terrorists could sneak into the station through Hooghly, armed personnel of Railway Protection Force (RPF) have been deployed.

“One side of Howrah station is surrounded by river Hooghly which could help terrorists to sneak in easily. So, we have deployed armed personnel there,” said Raja Ram, senior commandant, RPF (Howrah).

Not only this, a slew of security measures have been adopted by the Eastern and South Eastern Railway authorities that includes increasing the number of security personnel by 2,000 at selected stations.

Before the Mumbai attacks, S E Railway had decided to implement integrated security system at 11 stations, which they found vulnerable. Post Mumbai attacks, the authorities have taken a fresh look into the security arrangement and formulated new strategies to effectively tackle threat from terrorism at a high-level coordination meeting.

According to RPF, all stations in S E Railway will be equipped with electronic surveillance system, bomb disposal and detection squads and other equipment. “In the past, we had CCTVs only at the entrance and exit gates. From now on it will cover the whole station,” Ram said.

From now on, RPF personnel will be escorting all night trains originating from Howrah. The number of sniffer dogs will also be increased. For security of women passengers, a special women force “Durga” has been already introduced. A specific team has also been constituted to keep a watch on the activities of the RPF personnel at the station, said Ram.

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