CHENNAI: It will no longer be easy for chain snatchers or men trying to get into women's compartments on suburban trains, at least on two coaches on the
Chennai-Avadi
and Chennai-Gummidipoondi stretch. Four closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, inaugurated by senior
Southern Railway officials on Monday, will ensure this.
The 70,000 system, including the cameras, is part of the effort to improve safety on trains, a senior official said. The project was completed by the Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer (Sr DEE) at the Avadi EMU shed and handed over to the
Railway Protection Force on Monday. It was funded from the 500 crore Nirbhaya corpus for increasing security measures, officials said.
The system contains a high-definition Digital Video Recorder which will keep tabs on movements inside the coach, said K K Ashraf, senior divisional security commissioner. "It will be able to record footage for 15-20 days. In case of any incident, we can check the footage. It can aid RPF personnel who patrol trains." Real-time surveillance from the control room has been avoided due to privacy issues, Ashraf said.
The footage can be transferred using a pen drive or other devices. "Initially, we shall be analysing the footage related to regular complaints of men entering the compartment," Ashraf said. A layer of glass protection has been given to prevent tampering of the CCTV cameras.
Police will be able to investigate any crime committed in the vicinity of the coaches, Ashraf said. "It gets power supply from a battery and will be operational in the yard as well."
Southern Railway has already installed CCTV cameras in two passenger train coaches.
Integral Coach Factory
(
ICF
), which manufactures coaches, plans to install more CCTV cameras in the coaches it churns out, a senior official said.
"We have been allocated 300 crore in the past two years for a coach manufacture, far more than what we got earlier. We plan to use it for CCTV installation as well," he added.