The railways are not just installing more CCTVs, but are also improving lighting at railway station premises. For instance, the Central Railway has installed 605 CCTVs in the last one year. To improve the output, they have also augmented the lighting at stations. The CR authorities have installed lighting at 12 locations at nine stations across Mumbai.
According to CR officials, they are making high powered lighting arrangements at 12 various locations across 9 stations namely at Kurla, Thane, Kalva, Kalyan, Asangaon, Shahad, Ulhasnagar, Atgaon and Titwala. "We are installing two high powered lights at Kurla and three at Ulhasnagar," said a CR official on condition of anonymity.
The Free Press Journal were the first to report about such high powered halogen lights being installed at the CSMT-Dadar stretch. The CR authorities claim that they are strengthening the system with help of closed-circuit cameras across the rail system.
"We have installed 605 CCTVs in 2021 taking the total to 3,122 CCTVs installed at suburban railway stations. This will help us keep watch on antisocial elements. We are making arrangements for the provision of CCTVs under the Video Surveillance System at all stations for which tender is being finalised shortly," said Shivaji Sutar, Chief PRO, Central Railway.
Likewise, the Western Railway too has installed high-end CCTVs. As part of their Integrated Surveillance System, they have added features of facial recognition and video analytics to detect overcrowding, trespassing and abandoned objects.
The project encompasses a total of 2,729 cameras at 30 stations consisting of 2,029 Full HD Fixed, 179 Full HD PTZ and 521 Full HD and covering the core suburban section between Churchgate to Virar for crowd management, trespassing control etc with a face recognition facility.
In addition, block spots have been identified and staff have been deployed at vulnerable points to tackle fatka gangs involved in chain snatching.
On average, 110 suburban services are escorted daily over Mumbai Division and 105 mail/express trains are being escorted over Central Railway.
