Ladies’ compartment in local trains to have cameras

Wonder why? Big brother would be ‘watching’ ladies’ coaches round the clock hereafter. 

Southern Railway (SR) has put ladies’ coaches of suburban trains under CCTV surveillance to optimise women passengers’ safety. Initially, a ladies’ coach on board a Moore Market Complex (MMC) – Avadi EMU has been brought under CCTV surveillance on a trial basis. 

The new surveillance system has hardware with capacity to record for 30 days. Senior Divisional Security Commissioner KK Ashraff who confirmed the launch of the pilot project told DTNext that they would test the recording system and its ability to withstand tampering so that it could be improved further before extending it to ladies’ coaches and later to other coaches in other suburban trains. In the new system, which was retrofitted to the coach at Avadi car workshop, both the camera and recorder have been attached to the ceiling and locked in an enclosure, unlike a similar CCTV system on board express trains where most of the hardware was fitted to the under gear.

Security officials have planned to initially monitor the recordings every three days and subsequently make it a weekly affair. SR officers said they plan to make it a built-in surveillance system so that the chances of tampering could be minimised.