In a major move to enhance safety for women and children on trains, the railway ministry will be installing CCTVs inside nearly 15,000 coaches in a big order worth Rs 705 crore.
This will include 14, 387 coaches of premium trains like Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi as well as passenger trains like EMU, MEMU and DEMU and will cover trains across the country, as per a document accessed by News18. Last year, the ministry told Parliament that about 2,930 rail coaches had been covered by CCTVs so far. The present order will, hence, be almost five times bigger.
The railways has plans to cover all 60,000-odd coaches with CCTV surveillance on doorways, vestibule area and aisle area, and ensure that there is no breach of privacy. These internet protocol-based CCTVs will also have video analytics and facial recognition systems. They will enable remote operation and monitoring of coaches from RPF posts, divisional and zonal headquarters. There shall be a provision of a minimum two panic buttons in each coach, and pressing them will alert the nearest RPF post or data centre.
“The system implemented shall act as a tool to respond to situations and incidents effectively, aiding faster decision making and act as a great learning for better preparedness to meet any incident and eventualities,” the document stated.
The railways wants CCTV systems inside coaches to facilitate facial recognition for unambiguous identification of the target person by giving high-resolution images. Facial recognition in low-light conditions is desired, especially in the aisle area of the coaches during night time.
The system should also be suitable to withstand shocks and vibrations, the railways said. All the latest trains, like Vande Bharat and Tejas, have CCTV cameras. Close to 4.24 lakh cases were registered by the Railway Protection Force in 2021, as per National Crime Records Bureau.
