Duronto robbery triggers safety concerns! Railways Ministry mulls giving special protection to premier trains

After Sunday's armed theft aboard the New Delhi-Howrah Duronto Express in Bihar, the Ministry of Railways is seriously considering redeploying Railway Protection Force (RPF) commandos on elite trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto running through specific routes. The Government Railway Police (GRP) was scheduled to have armed units accompany this train at night. However, passengers stated that the GRP parties disembarked at Patna station, where the train arrived at roughly one in the morning. last Sunday.
As many as 20 armed robbers got on the train soon after it left Patna station on its way to Howrah and looted the belongings of the passengers in 7-8 coaches at gunpoint. Many passengers staged a demonstration at Howrah station after the train reached its destination, demanding better protection.

"It was extremely scary. The criminals pointed guns at the passengers and looted whatever they could lay their hands on. If this can happen on a Duronto Express, what of other trains? People pay a lot for tickets on such trains and deserve adequate protection. The railways claims law-and-order is the state governments` duty, but the states maintain they don`t have adequate manpower. Why should the passengers suffer due to all this," a passenger said after alighting in Howrah.

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According to a senior official in the Railway Board, the matter has been taken seriously, and discussions have begun on whether special RPF teams can be deployed end-to-end on such trains passing through certain states. Reports have been sought from senior RPF officials of East Central Railway. At one time, the New Delhi-bound Rajdhani Expresses from Howrah and Sealdah that passed through Bihar used to be escorted by RPF commandos. No untoward incident was reported when such an escort was provided. The commandos were withdrawn after Nitish Kumar took over as chief minister of Bihar and the law-and-order situation improved.

However, a legislator in Bihar said there is no need for a knee-jerk reaction. "All efforts are being made to track down the gang involved. We also suspect that this could be a political conspiracy to tarnish the image of the JD(U)-RJD coalition that is in power in Bihar at the moment," he said.

With inputs from IANS