Against the backdrop of heightened threat perception for railway stations, the government will deploy about 250 trained sniffer dogs at the stations across the country as part of enhanced security.
"Currently, we have 79 dog squads with 190 sniffer dogs. But we are in need of more trained dogs with the increased security threat perception," M K Sinha, Director General of Railway Protection Force, told PTI.
There are 185 stations in the country, which have been identified as sensitive.
"Besides taking other measures like installing CCTVs, door-frame metal detectors and procuring hand-held metal detectors, we are in the process of acquiring about 250 sniffer dogs," Sinha said, adding that trained dogs are very effective in detecting explosives.
The RPF is making operational a dog breeding and training centre at Poodunoor in Tamil Nadu.
"We had a centre at Daya Basti in Delhi. But extreme weather affected the pups and we had to close it down. Now, steps are being taken to make Poodunoor centre fully functional to meet our growing demand," Sinha said.
While North Eastern Railway has maximum number of 28 trained dogs, Eastern Railway (ER) has only 7 dogs.
"Recently, the Eastern Railway purchased 20 pups to be trained as sniffer dogs. Though some of the sensitive stations have sniffer dogs, their number is not adequate," Sinha added.
The government is formulating a composite security plan for Indian Railway and a high-powered committee has been formed comprising senior officials from IB, NSG, CRPF, CISF, railways and the RPF to examine all issues involving security.
The committee is headed by the Deputy Director General of RPF.
The committee will submit an interim report this month and a decision will be taken accordingly by the Railway Board, said Sinha.
Incidentally, it is not only RPF, even paramilitary organisations like CRPF and CISF are also facing a shortage of sniffer dogs.
SIS Ahmed, CRPF Director General, said: "Requirement of trained dogs in paramilitary forces has gone up because of the changed security scenario. In fact, all forces, including the CISF, BSF, CRPF, are in need of trained dogs. As far as the CRPF need is concerned, we need about 600 trained dogs to cater to our requirement."
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