Delhi Metro: Easy transit?

New Delhi, July 20: There are closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) at every Delhi Metro station but their location is such that commuters do not need to pass in front of them.

If you are a student ? or look like one ? your backpack is unlikely to be checked.

“Only books in your bag, right?” a smiling Delhi police constable at Kashmere Gate junction asks. On receiving an answer in the affirmative, he flashes another smile before clearing the backpack ? like the one used by Shehzad Tanweer in the London Underground blasts last year ? without a search.

Despite the ominous warning sent out by the July 11 blasts in Mumbai, Delhi Metro ? providing transport to around five lakh people everyday ? still appears vulnerable to terrorist designs.

“No one seems to want to take responsibility for introducing stricter ? and perhaps unpopular ? security measures,” said a senior official of the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation, admitting the security lacunae.

“A more rigorous check of bags, for instance, would possibly lead to a queue, but would ensure that Delhi does not see a repeat of London or Mumbai,” the official added.

Delhi Metro’s chief public relations officer Anuj Dayal, however, sees the huge passenger numbers as the biggest challenge to thorough frisking. “This is used by so many people that it is simply not possible to frisk everyone,” he said.

The CCTVs ? only one at each platform ? serve more as entertainment for kids wanting to watch themselves on TV than catching visuals of commuters.

“The CCTVs ideally should be more discrete,” said another senior Metro official dealing with technical aspects of security, admitting that the 12-inch television screens are unlikely to catch potential terrorists unawares.

While Kashmere Gate and Rajiv Chowk (Connaught Place) ? the busiest junctions ? each have more than five entry points to a platform, they have just one CCTV for each platform. At other stations, CCTVs are placed right at the centre of the platform, making it too simple to evade them.

Adding to this, a shortage of women constables at the stations means many women do not go through body frisking.

The police, which had asked the Metro to procure X-ray scanners similar to the ones used at airports, isn’t happy either. “We believe that (X-ray scanners) to be the most sure-shot way to prevent bombs passing through ? even though it would lead to longer queues,” said a senior police official involved with Delhi Metro’s security.

The X-ray machines, Delhi Metro says, are not feasible for a mass transit system.

“Not even the London Metro has an X-ray scanning system,” said Dayal.