Three days after a series of bomb blasts in Jaipur once again raised question marks over the vulnerability of Indian cities to terror strikes, the Government on Friday unveiled a new high-tech security system which it claimed would help in securing public places against terror attacks.Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said the Government was acquiring cutting edge, best-in-its-breed technology from a US company — the name of which he refused to reveal — which would be indigenised to protect crowded public places in the country.As the first step, the Government will carry out a technology demonstration at the New Delhi railway station carrying out a mock drill at platform number 12, the busiest at the station. “If it works at platform number 12, which attracts the maximum number of passengers, we can be reasonably certain that it will work at other places too. It will then be left to us to modify it and customise it to make it suitable for all sorts of public places like markets or religious centres,” Sibal said at a press conference.Without revealing the technical details, Sibal said the idea was to counter the latest technology being used by terrorists with an even better technology. The new security system would involve a wide range of high-tech devices and integrate all the inputs at a central command system for analysis.“The UPA Government has been working towards such a system for the past two years. In the next six months, we should be able to install this system at the New Delhi railway station and carry out a successful technology demonstration,” he said.The project is being handled by the Central Electronics Limited (CEL), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Science and Technology, which has been working with the Railways for a number of years on its safety and signaling. CEL would also be responsible for customising the system for Indian requirements. The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 20 crore. Sibal said the system was being successfully used in certain places in the United States.
