Advanced gadgets to fortify security at Tiruchi Junction

An array of advanced security gadgets is poised for installation at the Tiruchi Railway Junction under the Integrated Security Scheme (ISS) to strengthen security and surveillance at the station.

The latest gadgets fall under four heads of the ISS – Closed Circuit Television, Access Control, Personal Baggage Screening, and Bomb Detection and Disposal systems – that is aimed at putting in place a comprehensive security mechanism .

With the railway authorities having awarded the contract and identified vantage points at the station for fixing the surveillances cameras, the installation works are expected to commence shortly.

The spot for establishing the master control room, from where the movements taking place within the station premises would be constantly observed through monitors linked to the cameras, has also been identified. Railway sources said of the 58 surveillance cameras approved for Tiruchi Junction, 23 would be ‘Pan Tilt Zoom' type and the rest would be of fixed ones.

x-ray parcel scanner

Three automatic vehicle scanners and equal numbers of baggage scanners, an x-ray parcel scanner; a portable Real Time Viewing system; a vapour detector; 10 multi-zone door frame metal detectors; a non-linear junction detector and a Disruptor also form part of the wide variety of security gadgets approved for the Tiruchi Junction under the ISS, which was conceived in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008. The vehicle scanners would scan vehicles of all categories and sizes and provide high resolution images of the underside of vehicles and detect foreign objects automatically.

The security gadgets cost works out to Rs.4.67 crore, the sources said adding that construction of a perimeter wall around the station up to a length of 300 metres as an access control measure has also been proposed under the ISS.

The Tiruchi Junction, which is one among the major stations across the country identified for implementation of the ISS, has a total number of seven platforms with several trains originating and passing through it every day.

The sources say the security equipment would act as manpower multipliers enabling the personnel of the Railway Protection Force, vested with the responsibility of escorting passenger trains and providing access control, regulation and security in passenger and circulating areas, to have a better monitoring system in place.