To enhance safety of women and children on trains, CCTV will be installed inside almost 15,000 coaches by the Railway Ministry. CCTVs will be installed inside 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. 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.
The internet protocol-based CCTVs will have features like 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,” according to the document accessed by the news source.
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 railways also said that the systems must be suitable to withstand shocks and vibrations. The latest trains like Vande Bharat and Tejas have CCTV cameras. As per National Crime Records Bureau, almost 4.24 lakh cases were registered by the Railway Protection Force in 2021.
