To improve the safety and security of women passengers, the Central Railways is planning to install CCTVs and talkback systems in all women’s compartments. The work is expected to complete in the next two years.
"Central Railway will install closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) in all 771 ladies coaches of Mumbai Suburban Trains, process of installation is already begin and 199 CCTV cameras are already installed in the several ladies coaches of local trains," said a Central Railway official, adding that the talkback system will be also installed in all ladies compartment of 151 EMU Rakes (local trains) of the Central Railway.
Talkback systems to be installed
Process of installation of talkback systems also started, the official said. The talkback system has been already installed at 80 EMU Rakes over Central Railway.
"In financial year 2023-2024, Central Railway planned to install CCTVs in 589 coaches of Mumbai Suburban Trains. At present closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) are installed in 199 coaches of Mumbai Suburban Trains. At present the work is on in 39 ladies coaches. Rest coaches will be covered gradually," the official said.
"These cameras with enhanced safety features for women passengers with Infrared (IR) vision will be a deterrence for crime against women, help in investigation on criminal cases and recently installed coaches have the facility of live streaming of CCTV footage," said Shivraj Manaspure, chief public relations officer of the Central Railway.
"The talkback system facility will enable women passengers to speak to the local train guard during an emergency. The system features a button that needs to be pressed to talk to the guard (the one who mans the cabin on the non-driving end of the train) via an inbuilt microphone. There is another talkback system installed in the guard’s cabin that lets the guard reply and later alert the motorman in case of distress to passengers" he added.
Every local train has six women’s compartments including first-class compartments. Similarly, 162 ladies coaches of local trains and main line suburban train coaches have CCTV cameras and 31 ladies coaches of local trains already equipped with talkback system facility on Mumbai Suburban trains over Western Railway.
Talkback systems at Western Railway
To enhance safety and security for women passengers, Western Railway will install closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) in remaining 211 ladies coaches of local trains 70 ladies in main line suburban trains coaches.
"The talkback system is already installed in 111 coaches of local trains over Western Railway. Process of installation of talk back system all ladies compartments of 93 remaining local trains is on" said an official of WR.
"These cameras with enhanced safety features for women passengers with Infrared (IR) vision will be a deterrence for crime against women, help in investigation on criminal cases"
"The talkback system facility will enable women passengers to speak to the local train guard during an emergency. The system features a button that needs to be pressed to talk to the guard (the one who mans the cabin on the non-driving end of the train) via an inbuilt microphone. There is another talkback system installed in the guard’s cabin that lets the guard reply and later alert the motorman in case of distress to passengers". In addition to this Alarm Chain Pulling (ACP ) system is available in all coaches & train is stopped at the next halt in case of ACP. ACP flashing light is provided outside of all ladies coaches.
Every local train has four women’s compartments in local trains and two women’s compartments in main line suburban trains also known as MEMU including first-class compartments. The Railways plans to install the systems in all women’s compartments in their suburban fleet in phases over the next two years.
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