17 ladies’ coaches to get CCTVs by August

The Western Railway (WR) will set up closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in 17 ladies coaches by the end of August this year. The initiative was taken following a spate of attacks on women commuters in running trains.

WR released tenders for the same last week, and officials hope that the bidding and final process will be wrapped up within a month or so, and cameras will be seen inside ladies’ compartments. Currently, CCTV cameras have been set up in ladies compartments of three rakes of 12-coaches; however the new tender calls for 51 cameras in 17 rakes on WR, and is a big step towards women’s safety on the Mumbai suburban.

WR’s counterpart, the Central Railway (CR), had also experimented with setting up CCTV cameras but faced opposition from women activists who saw it as a breach of privacy. CR finally pulled out of the experiment but WR continued tinkering with the system which had initially thrown up several glitches.

Officials said CCTV cameras were unable to capture stable videos with faces of commuters. “The earlier cameras in late 2014 and early 2015 were not able to give us a stable video and the picture kept fluctuating to such a degree that the cameras were nearly of no use,” said an official on condition of anonymity. Women’s safety not only on railway platforms but inside running trains had become a cause for concern, with two women being attacked within 20 days of each other back in 2013. The first victim was a 23-year-old nurse, who was molested between Mumbai Central and Mahalaxmi stations by a man later identified as a drug user. The incident occurred during the early hours of morning in July and immediately after the incident, an American woman was attacked with a blade by a man who grabbed her phone and ran away in August that year.

As a result of these incidents, public representatives had pushed for more security measures for women who might be travelling alone during odd hours.