RPF campaign to improve security at railway stations

CHENNAI: In a bid to improve security at railway stations, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel conducted an awareness campaign to train porters, vendors, autorickshaw and taxi drivers and commuters to identify and detect explosives and suspicious activities at Central railway station, Moore Market Complex suburban station and Tambaram railway station on Saturday.
The move comes after railway ministry decided to rope in stakeholders at railway stations to improve security and enhance intelligence gathering after the terror attack in Gurdaspur in which bombs were seized from railway track on the Amritsar-Pathankot section. A similar campaign was conducted at Egmore railway station a few days ago.
The awareness campaign is also significant for Central railway station where a passenger was killed in a bomb blast onboard Guwahati-Bangalore Express that was parked at the station in May 2014.
RPF personnel displayed materials like tiffin box, flask, lamp, suitcases, backpacks and other items that could be used to hide explosives.
Southern Railway divisional security commissioner for Chennai K K Ashraf said: "Taxi drivers, auto drivers and vendors will know the kind of people who come to the railway station. We teach them how to identify bombs, what to do when a bomb or a suspicious object is found at the station and other steps that needs to be taken. The campaign is done as part of a force multiplier initiative in which people who work at the stations are also roped in to provide inputs to RPF. "
He also said that inputs provided by drivers had come in handy to crack crime cases in the past at Egmore and a few other stations.