Click to play videoMumbai: The lifeline of Mumbai are its local trains and on July 11, 2006 seven bombs ripped through many trains killing nearly 200 people.
However, two years on and after yet another terror strike at the city's major landmarks, even basic security apparatus like metal detectors and CCTV cameras- installed at railway stations remain non-functional.
So the 6 million commuters take a ride in the Mumbai local trains every day as Mumbaikars would put it - Bhagwan Bharose (On God's mercy).
After the 7/11 blasts metal detectors were installed at railway stations and every commuter was to be checked in a massive security drill.
A three-day trial showed that the huge number of commuters was enough to make the metal detectors come crashing down and the grand plan ended on the first day itself.
"It is not humanly possible to physically check all the baggage. But about 20-30 percent checking is taking place," says CP Sharma, Divisional Railway Manager, Western Railway.
Even as a CNN-IBN team walked through Churchgate Station with a camera, no one stopped them. Even the metal detectors did not beep.
CCTVs were installed just eight months ago and the Mumbai Central Station, one of the busiest in the city, has got CCTVs in every corner.
Railway officials admit that media pressure forced them to hurriedly install the cameras. But at just Rs 1.2 crore a year, the cost of 530 cameras installed at 30 railway stations from Churchgate to Virar, is a mere pittance, especially since CCTVs help only after an event has occurred. Zicom, the company that installed CCTV says this is all they could fit into the meagre budget the railways gave them.
There is a budget, and this is what we could give them. if they had increased the budget we could have given them more intelligent technology," says Pramod Rao, Zicom MD.
Sniffer dogs too patrol only one or two major stations. They weren't around when the CNN-IBN team was at Churchgate and Mumbai Central stations.
Officials also say there are not enough personnel to make the railways secure enough.
"We are forming the bomb disposal squad for which proposal has already been sent. We are trying to increase the deployment of manpower also. We are expecting and hopeful that this year we will get it as this requires a lot of formalities," says Sharma.
Two years on, the lessons from 7/11 have not been learnt and 6 million commuters still take the train hoping they will get to their destination safe and sound.
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