Caller ID booths at stations

Maneesh Pandey / TNN / Aug 18, 2006, 03:19 IST

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The Northern Railway has replaced the age-old coin operated telephone booths with caller ID PCO booths at all Delhi stations.

NEW DELHI: Even as public places, including railway stations and airports, continue to remain extremely vulnerable targets for terror threats, Northern Railway (NR) has replaced the age-old coin operated telephone booths with caller ID PCO booths at all Delhi stations.
"There were about 22 of these phones at New Delhi and about 18 at Old Delhi which have been replaced with manned caller ID PCO booths. This has been done deter pranksters from making hoax calls for bombs at stations and inside running trains," said a senior NR officer.
The measure has shown instant results, claimed the officer, adding: "There have been only two hoax calls in the last one month. The hoax calls cause panic at the stations, particularly during peak season."
The caller ID phones have been installed at even the railway control rooms and the GRP-run points at major stations. "We had been receiving security-related input and hence installed this caller ID system in March 2006.

While other parts of the city were receiving hoax calls, we got only two, one on July 30 in Shan-e-Punjab train and the other on August 9 at the New Delhi station itself. But before caller ID phones came into place, we had received about 20 such hoax calls in over a year."
The NR has also given a go-ahead to the Rs 2.75 crore proposal for installing X-ray machines to scan about 50,000 packages and booked luggage being handled at the three major Delhi stations.
"These parcels and booked luggage are a potential security hazard which only go through the routine drill of hand-held metal detectors.
We will soon install these X-ray machines at New Delhi, Old Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations, which together handle about 45,000-50,000 packages daily."
The officer added that checking has been intensified and intelligence sharing among the different security agencies manning city stations, including Delhi Police and RPF, had been instrumental in nabbing two Lashkar suspects from New Delhi station a day after terror plot at Heathrow was foiled.
"Besides deploying extra security personnel, the access points are under surveillance, claimed a RPF officer adding: "The night checks have been intensified which have made access difficult for trespassers, including vagabonds and small-time criminals, who usually loiter around station area for a space to sleep."

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