It’s almost eight years after the 26/11 terror attacks, but securing Mumbai is still a work in progress project. The Central Railway (CR) has finally decided to replace the protective sandbags columns at important railway stations with bullet-proof barricades by 2017.
The stations that will soon get these new bullet-proof barricades include CST, Kalyan, Dadar and the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) at Kurla. The procurement of six bullet-proof barricades at Rs 75, 000 each has been proposed and will allow the Railway Protection Force (RPF) jawans to either sit or stand behind the 5.5-mm thick steel body sheets. The barricades are popularly known as “bullet-proof morchas” by the cops.
The morchas have capacity to withstand bullets fired from an A K-47 and 74. An officer requesting anonymity said that the approval of the specifications of the morcha has been approved by the home ministry. “The RPF has asked the CR’s stores department to approve the allocation of funds for the same. The stores department will give its okay and then come out with tenders. It will take around four to five months for this to happen,” the officer said.
RPF’s senior divisional security commissioner Mr Sachin Bhalode confirmed about the new security measures. “There is something of that sort in the pipeline but I cannot give you any details due to security reasons.”
A morcha can house two jawans behind it and will be of two types, that is full-body and half-body in which the jawans can stand and sit behind with a slit provided for them to see it.
