With improved lighting, 605 cameras, nine Central Railway stations got brighter and safer in 2021

Lights have been added at shadow spots; vulnerable areas have been identified where staff has been deployed to keep eye on fatka gangs

The Central Railway on Thursday announced that it had improved lighting at 12 locations at nine city railway stations and has installed 605 new cameras to cover shadow spots in the past year.

“Lux level [refer to box] at 12 locations at nine stations has been improved with brighter lights after surveys and passenger feedback. These locations include two spots at Kurla station, Thane, Kalwa, Kalyan, Asangaon, Shahad, three spots at Ulhasnagar station, Atgaon and Titwala,” said Shivaji Sutar, Central Railway chief public relations officer.

Sutar said in addition to this, spots have been identified and staff has been deployed at vulnerable points to tackle fatka gangs involved in snatching cases. He also said Central Railway has installed 605 CCTV cameras in 2021, making the total of 3,122 CCTV cameras installed at its suburban stations to keep an eye out for antisocial elements. On average, 110 suburban services are escorted daily over the Mumbai division and 105 mail/express trains are escorted over Central Railway.

In addition, Sutar said CR is also making arrangements with Railtel for the provision of CCTVs under the Video Surveillance System (VSS) at all stations, for which, a tender is being finalised shortly. The VSS CCTVs are networked on optical fibre cable and the video feed is displayed not only at local RPF posts but also at a centralised CCTV control room at divisional and zonal levels, which means, there will be 24x7 monitoring at three levels to ensure enhanced safety and security at railway premises.

Explaining the improvement of lighting levels, a senior official said lighting levels were assessed for adequacy both in terms of brightness and the context. That is, corners, staircases and foot overbridges may need more than average lighting as these tend to be perceived as spaces to fear by women.

“There are plans to improve the illumination levels at all stations, circulating areas, foot overbridges and even the concourse. This clubbed with the system of automatic on and off of lighting, according to the brightness in the atmosphere, will save a lot of energy,” he added.

What lux level is

Lux is a standardised unit of measurement of light level intensity, which is commonly referred to as “illuminance” or “illumination”. A measurement of 1 lux is equal to the illumination of a one-metre square surface, that is one metre away from a single candle. As per Indian Railway standards, the railway board has elaborate guidelines in place for every category of stations.

3,122
No. of CCTV cameras installed at CR stns so far

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