Six more Railway Stations in Kerala to be equipped with CCTV Surveillance Cameras

Six more Railway Stations in Kerala to be equipped with CCTV Surveillance Cameras

Railways to step up passenger security measures

Kochi: Six ‘A’ category stations including Ernakulam North and Kottayam will come under the eyes of CCTV cameras soon as the Railways is ready with a proposal to step up security cover and passenger security measures.

Only five major stations out of the 169 railway stations in the State have CCTV cameras. This alarming security gap, incidentally admitted to by officials concerned, has come to the fore post the attack against a blind couple in a moving train near Kottayam on August 8.

“The division has submitted a proposal for approval by Chennai headquarters for setting up CCTV cameras at vital spots of six ‘A’ category stations namely Ernakulam North, Kottayam, Chengannur, Nagercoil, Aluva and Kayamkulam, “said K P James, Assistant Commissioner, RPF.

As per the proposal, each station is expected to get at least five high quality surveillance cameras, to be installed at strategic locations including entry and exit points besides a control room for monitoring.

Confirming the proposal, Aroma Singh Thakur, Deputy Inspector-General – cum – Additional Chief Security Commissioner, RPF, Southern Railway said stations like Chengannur had been witnessing huge rush of passengers, especially during the Sabarimala season.

“Hence, we have fast-tracked the plans to bring smaller stations too under camera surveillance, especially in view of the increasing security threats to the passengers’’ explained the official.

The stations that have CCTV surveillance system at present are Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Ernakulam Junction, Thrissur – all A1 stations having annual earnings of over Rs 50 crore under the Thiruvanathapuram Railway division, in addition to Kozhikode.

Of this, Thiruvanthapuram and Ernakulam has a network of 60 cameras each while the system in Kollam and Thrissur comprise 21 cameras each.

Senior Railway officials pointed out that the absence of CCTV cameras is proving to be a major stumbling block in prevention of crimes, especially in some of the major stations like Aluva- where migrant labourers are concentrated in large numbers.

“The situation is more alarming in the wake of reports about the operation of some inter-state theft rackets based on railway stations and trains’’, pointed out a senior official.

The railway police have so far recorded about 133 theft cases in the first seven months of 2015.