Indian railways to install CCTV cameras on trains, prioritising passenger safety

In a new move targeted at making railways safer, India’s Ministry of Railways has announced that it will be installing CCTV cameras in all passenger coaches and locomotives. The move was announced in a press release on Sunday, and comes after similar initiatives were successful in the country’s Northern Railways.

Here’s what to expect with this new change.

This new initiative is spearheaded by the Ministry of Railways, with key individuals like the Union Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and the Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, at the forefront of this project.

The duo highlighted the need for such security reforms to minimise crime and ensure passenger safety remains a top priority. And as an organisation in service for over 170 years, the Indian railways can greatly benefit from these long overdue changes.

“This move will significantly improve passenger safety. Miscreants and organised gangs take advantage of gullible passengers. With cameras, such incident will significantly reduce. To preserve privacy of passengers, CCTV cameras will be installed in the common movement area near the doors,” the press release read.

A total of 74,000 passenger coaches and 15,000 locomotives will be undergoing these new shifts.

Cameras are to be placed in high-traffic areas. Passenger coaches will be equipped with a total of four dome CCTV cameras, and will be spaced out to position two at each entrance. In a similar manner, locomotives will have six cameras spread across the front, rear, and sides of the train. The locomotives will also have one dome type CCTV camera and two desk-mounted microphones for better coverage.

The cameras will be designed to ensure that footage will be appropriately captured even if the trains are travelling at 100kmph, or are in areas that create low-light conditions.

Vaishnaw further emphasised the camera performance, stating that only the “best-in-class equipment” will be utilised for this project. He also recommended exploring the potential usage of artificial intelligence for the security footage, to further the efforts of the IndiaAI mission.

The ministry also pledged to ensure that passenger privacy is preserved, and that the cameras will only be utilised to “help in identifying miscreants.”

The installation of these security cameras are part of the broader initiatives by local authorities to modernise and uplift the local railway.

Other recent initiatives include the launch of a new RailOne app that focuses on digitising everyday train activity like booking tickets or viewing active train operation details.