Pickpockets, thieves force a Metro station layout change

NEW DELHI: In the rush-hour Capital, the “beware of pickpockets” sign blurs against a surge of hundreds jostling to buy a ticket home or office at Metro stations. That’s when, and where, pickpockets and petty thieves do business.

The crowd is thicker near ticket counters, automated ticket vends, and at entry points where personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) frisk passengers and check their luggage — perfect cover for thieves to pick a person’s pocket or bolt with a lady’s bag.

Growing incidents of theft have forced the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to tweak its station design in the new lines being built, keeping provisions to avoid crowding near ticket counters and security checks.

The design change was decided after a study by the CISF, the agency that guards the Metro, found 90% of bags were stolen from these “vulnerable” areas.

Metro stations coming up in Phase-3, in which more than 100 stations will be built along a new 159km network, will have a designated corner for ticket vends, longer walls and taller gates — from 3.5ft now to 7ft — to separate the secured or “paid” area, CCTV cameras at strategic points and automated platform gates.

“There are too many activities around the ticket counter. People are frisked near three queues for ticket, smart card and ticket machines in close proximity,” a senior CISF official said.

But the design of 10% of the upcoming stations couldn’t be tweaked because of space constraints.

The security measures are important because Metro will carry millions of new passengers when its Phase-3 network becomes fully operational, likely by mid-2017.

Also, by end-2017, the Metro plans to replace ticket counters with vending machines. It operates over 200 such machines now.

Taller barricades and surveillance cameras placed strategically will stop incidents of people throwing their bags into the secured area to avoid going through the security screening in X-ray machines. Such breaches pose a serious security threat.

The Metro has also planned to install screen doors at its new stations to prevent people from tripping over or attempting to commit suicide.