PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, May 19: The baggage scanner at Tatanagar railway station is lying defunct for approximately the last three months, raising a serious safety concern at the A-1 category railway station.
A board of ‘Out of Order’ has been put at the baggage machine as the high-end gadget is proving to be a white elephant.
The machine was installed at the A1-category Tatanagar station in March 2018. The scanner installed at the entry point of Tatanagar is used during a security alert and whenever there is some security tip-off from the railway’s intelligence wing.
Tatanagar railway station assumes significance as it falls on the Howrah- Mumbai main trunk route. Several important trains including high-profile ones like Duronto and Rajdhani Express pass through Tatanagar railway station, which witnesses a daily footfall of around 50,000 passengers.
Tatanagar’s vulnerability comes from the fact that many Naxalite incidents have taken place in the vulnerable Chakradharpur railway division area.
The station authorities were unable to say when will the baggage scanner resume functioning.
“The matter has been intimated to our Kolkata headquarters through Chakradharpur division. We are keeping fingers crossed, ” said an official.
