Railways to install CCTV cameras in all passenger coaches, locomotives to enhance safety

A senior official said that the decision was taken at a review meeting held by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday.

To preserve the privacy of passengers, CCTV cameras will be installed in the common movement area near the doors.

Currently, semi-high speed trains such as Vande Bharat, Tejas Express and superfast train Amrit Bharat Express have CCTV cameras.

“A trial run for the project was carried out in some coaches and locomotives in the Northern Railway. In the review meeting with the senior officials of the Railway Board, it was decided to install CCTV cameras in all 7,400 plus coaches and around 15,000 locomotives,” the official said.

“Each railway coach will have a total of four dome type CCTV cameras — two each at the entrance side. Each locomotive will be equipped with six CCTVs — one each at the front, rear, left and right side, all outside. Inside the loco, there will be one dome CCTV each at the front and rear side. The locomotives will also be equipped with the two desk mounted microphones,” the official explained.

These cameras will be certified by the Standardization Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) directorate.

“These cameras will help the Railway staff to identify miscreants. Taking the issue of privacy of passengers into account, these cameras will be installed only at the entry gate of the coaches. In the meeting, it was also decided to explore the use of AI on the data captured by CCTV cameras, in collaboration with the IndiaAI mission,” said the official.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a senior official of the Northern Railway said that the trial of the project was done in a few coaches by the Delhi division of the zone.

“The trial was successful in reducing the number of cameras from three (earlier provided in Research Designs & Standard Organisation (RDSO) specifications) to two on each end of the coach. The proposed location of two cameras helped to cover all the four doors in any AC coach on each end. The same was accepted by the Railway Board and approved for implementation,” he said.

The official further said that CCTV cameras have been installed in 6,139 coaches in Northern Railway so far. These include 3,853 LHB coaches, 1,436 ICF coaches and 850 EMU/MEMU/DEMU coaches.

“Tenders for the installation in all the coaches were floated on July 11. Three workshops of the Northern Railway will be carrying out the task- Jagadhri for LHB coaches, Alambagh for ICF coaches and Charbagh for EMU/MEMU/DEMU coaches,” the official added.