RailEnquiry

MUMBAI:Central Railway (CR) will soon procure binoculars equipped with nigh-vision for the Railway Protection Force (RPF) as part of its efforts to enhance security at station and railway tracks in Mumbai.

A senior RPF official said, "Apart from this, CR has also placed orders for 125 binoculars, of which 55 will be used in the Mumbai division. The binoculars will have range of 1 km and will come handy for keeping track on suspicious movement, unclaimed baggage etc, besides coming in handy to check roof top traveling."

RPF personnel posted at important stations like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Dadar, Kurla, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Thane and Kalyan will be allotted this binoculars. Around 100 police personnel would be trained for using these equipment by the company supplying these equipments.

Apart from binoculars, the RPF personnel will also given handycam video cameras to record footage of queues at Passenger Reservation System to check touting and incidents like rail-roko agitation. It can also be used on platforms as footage of the video can help identity criminals.

Even though the stations are covered adequate by CCTV network, these equipment prove handy to those patrolling the stations or tracks. The CCTV footage can only be seen in control room and there are grey areas which cannot accessed by CCTV, he said.

CR has already appointed Nelco Ltd, a Tata group firm to implement the Rs 25.25 crore Integrated Security System (ISS). It will install 784 internet-based CCTV cameras at six stations, including CST, Dadar, Kurla, Lokmany Tilak Termninus, Thane and Kalyan

The ISS was conceptualized across India with an aim to upgrade the security through implementation of Internet-based CCTV surveillance of station premises, personnel and baggage screening system, access control system and bomb detection and disposal system.