Soon, new frisking booths will come up at Metro stations to give women commuters a better view of their belongings that are being put through the baggage scanners.
Women have often complained that they can not see their belongings while being frisked. For this purpose, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to construct uniform frisking booths for women at all metro stations and for that work is already on to explore the feasibility.
Udayan Banerjee, DIG, CISF said, "Once the uniform frisking booths are in place, women commuters will be able to get a full view of x-ray machines after keeping their bags and other belongings for checking at all the 134 metro stations. At present they have to leave their bags inside scanners and then move to veiled frisking zones at certain stations."
At present, there are 80 metro stations where women put their belongings in the baggage scanners and then go for frisking. Before they come out, their baggage piles up with that of other commuters, leading to a rush-like situation. Due to this, thefts from such stations were also reported in the past where bags and belongings went missing.
Banerjee said the work is in progress and it will take two to three months and all the stations' frisking booths for women will be designed where they will have an access to their belongings and goods.
Everyday 20 lakh commuters travel by the Delhi Metro and all of them have to go through the frisking process. Out of these, 10 to 12 lakh are men and the remaining are women. The problem aggravates especially during peak hours.