CCTV cameras at all railway stations and train coaches by March 2022: Indian Railway Board Chairman

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The Indian Railways has floated tenders for installing CCTV cameras at all the stations and in all the coaches by March 2022, Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav said on Monday. Speaking to the media here, the Chairman said, "By December this year, the railways has installed CCTVs at 503 railway stations across the country." He said the railways received Rs 500 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund for installing CCTV cameras on the railway premises across the country.

He added that the railways has also allotted Rs 2,000 crore for the installation of CCTV cameras at over 6,100 stations and in over 58,600 coaches.

The railways will also be using facial recognition and Artificial Intelligence to identify culprits, said Yadav.

Giving a clarification on privacy issues and surveillance of passengers, Yadav said, "The CCTV in the train coaches will be fitted in the common area and it will not compromise with the privacy of the passengers."

While talking about the punctuality of the trains, Yadav said that 60 per cent of the locomotives have been installed with the RTIS (Real Time Information System) whereas the rest of the work will be completed by next year in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

"RTIS in collaboration with ISRO for automatic chart preparation and passenger train information has been fast tracked and till date we have installed the RTIS system in over 2,700 electric locomotives and 3,800 diesel locomotives provided with RAMLOT," he said.

"Balance of the 6,000 locomotives to be provided with the RTIS in a year's time and tenders have been floated for the same," he said.

Yadav also emphasised that automatic control charting is being done for 6,500 locomotives across the country.

To a question over the privatisation of the railway production units, Yadav clarified that there are "no plans" for privatising the railway manufacturing units. "We are not going to privatise railways but we are holding discussions on corporatisation."

A political row had erupted earlier this year over the privatisation of the Modern Coach Factory (MCF) in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in July opposed in the Lok Sabha the railway ministry proposal to corporatise its production units, including the MCF, alleging that it was the "first step" towards their privatisation.

However, the railways rejected her charge and said the factory will remain under government control.