The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is likely to increase its strength across the Delhi Metro stations for providing better security in and around stations and the commuters. According to official sources, over 6,600 additional personnel are to be sanctioned by the Central Government to augment the security of stations. CISF performs two major tasks of guarding the Delhi Metro and protecting high-risk VIPs.
A senior CISF official said a fresh sanction of 5,140 posts is likely to be made by the end of May this year to enhance the capacity of the force for guarding the new Delhi Metro phase-III expansion, while another 1,540 posts will be sanctioned to it by the Union Home Ministry to bolster the strength of its VIP security wing called the Special Security Group (SSG). The total manpower sanctioned is 6,680 personnel.
The official said that ensuring foolproof security for the Delhi Metro and its passengers is the most important task for the paramilitary.
The Director General of the CISF, who took charge on April 11, had on Wednesday reviewed the security arrangements at the Metro and visited some stations. The Delhi Metro phase-III project is being implemented at a cost of around Rs 40,000 crore and a total of 140 km of network will be added to the current coverage of 213 km.
The latest phase, with some part already operational, will also add 15 interchange stations to the existing nine and will take the count of total stations in the Delhi-NCR to 227.
This manpower will be used to guard this network, the officials said.
About 9,000 CISF men and women are currently deployed to secure the existing stations of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
The force that guards over 70 VIPs like National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has quite a job on its hands. The new recruits will fill existing posts and expand the SSG wing, they said.
The SSG, they said, has about 1,200 personnel in position as of now. The Central Industrial Security Force is the nodal agency to guard the Delhi Metro, but some areas like the entry and exit points and the passage to the stations -- the unpaid areas -- are not under its cover.
These areas are jointly secured by the CISF and the Metro unit of the Delhi Police. The official said the force has prepared a plan to "proactively" secure these grey areas by deploying special patrol teams and quick reaction teams, sources said.