The Hindu : Front Page : CISF to take over Delhi Metro security

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Thursday, Mar 08, 2007
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CISF to take over Delhi Metro security

Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI: With the Delhi Metro figuring high on the list of possible terrorist targets, its security would be handed over to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on April 15. Incidentally, CISF has been handling the security of the Central Government installations and buildings in Delhi and the IGI Airport for the past five years.

Addressing a press conference, CISF Director-General SIS Ahmed said on Wednesday that 1,633 posts had been sanctioned for Phase I of the Delhi Metro project. As there was a paucity of trained personnel, the force had also started recruitments for the purpose, he said. The deployment would be done in a phased manner from April 1. Earlier, CISF was assisting the Delhi police in providing security cover to the Delhi Metro.

As the Metro was considered very vulnerable to terrorist strikes, Mr Ahmed disclosed that the force had recommended procurement of explosive detectors, baggage scanners and "intelligent" video cameras, apart from other security gadgets. The intelligent cameras, which were yet to be procured, could detect out-of-the-ordinary occurrences on the basis of the data fed into its software defining the characteristics of various unusual events.

On the lines of passenger profiling mechanism at airports, the CISF had recommended setting up of green and red channels at Metro stations for the purpose of screening suspicious passengers, he said and added: "Through profiling, the suspicious looking passengers would be passed through the red channel." Mr. Ahmed said that CISF, which was presently manning 54 airports, would provide security cover to eight more airports, including the highly sensitive ones at Srinagar and Leh.

The Srinagar airport would, however, be under a joint command of various Central security forces for some time.

About certain security lapses at airports in the recent past, Mr. Ahmed said a foolproof mechanism to prevent such incidents in future was being chalked out.

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