Bengaluru: Namma Metro commuters carrying baggage often end up in long queues as every station has only one X-ray scanner and they too face frequent technical snags.
Once a scanner breaks down, the bags have to be manually checked by security personnel and this leads to long delays, especially during peak hours.
At the entrance ‘A’ of Indiranagar Metro Station the scanner have been dysfunctional for the past two months and commuters are having a harrowing time.
Several Metro users have raised the issue on social media and some have even written directly to BMRCL, but the issue continues to remain unresolved.
A private firm was contracted to supply X-ray baggage scanners at all Metro stations.
"The scanner has not been working for two months I guess, all commuters have to wait in long queues and they get restless and start shouting at the BMRCL staff present. But I feel it is due to the apathy of BMRCL officials, who have not bothered to replace it. It is the responsibility of the official concerned to take the security of their citizens a little more seriously and promptly fix the issue. They have not only made us wait forever for the Metro services to start and now they want to create security concerns when metro is regarded as the fastest and safest mode of transport in our city," said Kavitha, a regular Metro user.
At Indiranagar metro station two security personnel have been deployed to check the bags using metal detectors. It is hardly effective as X-ray scans, but there is no other option.
Outdated scanners
People also complain that the baggage scanner used Bengaluru’s metro stations are outdated and need to be upgraded.
“It should be more secure and faster as we have seen in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. They have the new state-of-the-art baggage screening machines, which have next-generation features such as explosives and narcotics detection and a camera that keeps a watch on who is placing the baggage in the scanner and who is taking it out. So BMRCL too should install new scanner machines for the convenience of the commuters,” Kavitha added.
