Tirupati railway station lacks security

Tirupati: Security at Tirupati railway station became a nonentity in the absence of no visible presence of Railway Protection Force (RPF) or Government Railway Police (GRP) sleuths anywhere in the vicinity of the station. Though more than 50,000 passengers on an average per day travel through the station anyone can enter it freely without any check.

The station has at least 10 different entry/exit points though some of them may be unauthorised passages. There was no checking point at any of these exits except surveillance of CCTV cameras. If any miscreants enter the station with some unwanted material nobody can find them till the damage they intended to do is done. Among all these entrances, doorframe metal detectors were provided only at two entry points which were also not in use.

While the door frame metal detectors equipped at the main entrance were removed almost a month back in view of the flooring works being carried out there and they were not installed at any other point alternatively. The two other such detectors were placed at the entry point located opposite railway reservation complex, but no one will be asked to pass through them.

GRP staff have arranged a help desk opposite that entrance and one or two personnel will sit there though it may of little use. The presence of RPF personnel can be seen nowhere in the station, who need to protect the railway properties and their help desk at the main entrance looks empty.

Both RPF and GRP offices were located in the first floor of the platform number one and in the absence of any indication, pilgrims find it hard to find these offices. Pilgrim passengers on other platforms cannot find any police protection nor any indication boards about the mobile numbers of concerned staff or the office address.

Many passengers were complaining about pickpocketing of cash and mobile phones and it has been a routine affair. Besides, pick-pocketers there was a menace of beggars and unknown persons on the platforms. Even in broad day light, such people were sleeping on the floor there as nobody can stop them.

Steel handles and legs of newly installed chairs for the convenience of passengers were broken at several places in the station. Auto drivers gathering at the main entrance in groups and indulging in dirty comments on passengers and confusing them.

Police personnel were not preventing them from entering the portico. However, the Station superintendent M Subodh Mithra said that they will address these issues and take necessary steps. There were plans to shift both GRP and RPF stations to the ground floor of platform 1. He said they will talk to the contractor and see that the chairs get repaired immediately.