In keeping with the budgetary proposal to step up security measures in Railways, Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated the fitment of CCTV in Train No.s 12497/12498 Shan-e-Punjab Express today (08.04.2016) through video-conferencing from Rail Bhawan premises, New Delhi. Senior Railway officers present at Rail Bhawan include Shri Hemant Kumar, Member Mechanical Railway Board, Shri Mohd. Jamshed, Member Traffic Railway Board, Shri V.K.Gupta, Member Engineering, Railway Board and Shri A.K.Puthia General Manager, Northern Railway, Shri Arun Arora, DRM, Delhi Division. At the ceremonial commencement of the function at Amritsar railway station, Shri Anil Joshi, Minister for Local Govt., Medical Education & Research, Govt. of Punjab, Shri Bakshi Ram Arora, Mayor, Amritsar, and Members of the Passengers Amenities Committee Dr. Ashok Tripathi, Shri Mohd. Irfan Khan and Shri Tilak Raj Kataria were the distinguished guests on the occasion. Shri Anuj Prakash Divisional Railway Manager, Northern Railway, Firozpur, and senior Railway officers were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that the agenda of passengers’ safety has always been on priority of Indian Railways and to ensure safety of all rail passengers, various steps such as helplines, CCTVs, sensitization of RPF, integrated security system etc. have been introduced by the Railways. He said that CCTV Surveillance Cameras in Shan-e-Punjab is a one more step towards improving security in Indian Trains. He said that installing CCTV in Indian trains is a technological step for improvement in safety. He said that technology and human efforts have to go hand in hand. He further said that Railways is actively underway in finding more innovative solutions for technological advancement of Railways which will certainly help in mitigating untoward incidents/crimes in railway premises. Referring to the Shan-e-Punjab train becoming the first train fitted with surveillance security cameras, Shri Suresh Prabhu pointed out that it will prove to be an example of Shan-e-Safety also.
Stepping up of security measures for the travelling public is one of the high-priority areas of the Indian Railways. From round-the-clock accessible Helplines, fine-tuning of measures of response to emergencies to installation of technology-enabled modes of multi-screening, surveillance and security systems, the Railway is increasingly adopting all-out measures to contain and mitigate crimes on its premises. The installation of surveillance systems was done through Ms/ A-Paul Instrument Company at an approximate cost of Rs. 36.71 lacs for 02 nos. Sleeper coaches, 03 AC Chair Car & 16 nos. non-AC Chair Car coaches of the 12497 Shane-e-Punjab Express. Without compromising on privacy of rail passengers, the CCTV system includes 4 to 6 Cameras per coach strategically located so that entire area of coaches can be covered.
The other features DVR (Digital video recorder) for recording and with HDD & SD Card, Software, Display Monitor for observations, interconnecting cables, 12 V power supply and accessories. The System shall facilitate facial recognition for unambiguous identification of the target parson by giving resolution images, enable facial recognition in low light condition especially in aisle area during night time. The system has been made suitable for mobile application for use on railway coaches and should be able to withstand vibrations and shocks that are encountered. The storage capacity is for one month on a removable media for retrieving data on intermediate stations by authorized person viz. RPF. The Recorder has safety storage/emergency recording function, i.e. in case of HDD failure the data should store on additional storage device (SD Card) with in-built diagnostics to log internal function or hardware failure. With further proliferation of surveillance cameras on coaches, besides crimes against women, other miscreant activities, theft etc. are also anticipated to get significantly reduced.