Indian Railways and its PSU RailTel have installed IP based Video Surveillance (CCTV),cameras at 813 major Railway stations across country, giving a major boost to safety and security of passengers, especially women and children. The work is in progress at 47 more stations and will be completed soon. By March 2022, 756 stations are targetedto be completed by Railways and RailTel.
It is a project covering all A1, A, B, C, D and E category railway stations and around 5000stations are being executed by RailTel. Indian Railways signed a MoU with RailTel on25.6.2020 for installing CCTV at Stations. In order to promote domestic manufacturing,address national security concerns, clause for audit of complete system by CERT-INempaneled government agencies and prevent participation of countries sharing landborder with India, broad based, robust revised specifications were issued by IndianRailways and based on the same RailTel has floated 4 tenders in May’21 for CCTV at 456stations.
These CCTVs are being networked on optical fiber cable and the video feed of the CCTVcameras is being displayed not only at local RPF posts but also at a centralized CCTVcontrol room at divisional and zonal level. The CCTV cameras of stations and video feedsare being monitored at 3 levels to ensure enhanced safety and security at Railwaypremises. RailTel has completed work of setting up centralized control room at 14 zonalRailways and work at balance are in progress. These centralized control room aredisplaying video feeds from CCTV installed by RailTel at stations of respective zones.Network Management System (NMS) has been also been provided for monitoring ofCameras, Server, UPS and Switches which can be viewed from any web browser byauthorized personnel.
4 types of IP cameras (Dome type, bullet types, Pan Tilt Zoom type and Ultra HD- 4k) arebeing installed to ensure maximum coverage inside the Railway premises. This will givean extra edge to the RPF officials to improve security. The recording of the video feedsform CCTV cameras will be stored for 30 days.The work was hampered partially due to covid 19 pandemic lockdown, restrictivesupply of material and restrictions on movement. However, with things coming back tonormal, the project is now being executed smoothly.
What is the cost of IP based video surveillance system and how effective it is? Is it so urgent to undertake this at 813 stations? I think it may not be proper to spend huge amount on such things at this stage particularly when Railway financial position is in bad shape.