12 more Odisha railway stations to get video surveillance system

BHUBANESWAR: The Indian Railways will install IP (internet protocol) based video surveillance system at 12 more stations in Odisha. The objective of this installation is to strengthen the security system at railway station premises.
Under the Nirbhaya Fund, the Railways will install this video surveillance system (VSS) at 756 stations across the country. First phase of the project, which covers major stations of category A1, A, B and C, is likely to be completed by January 2023. The remaining stations will be covered in phase-II, said a statement of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) issued on Wednesday.
Out of 15 ECoR-controlled stations, 11 come under Odisha. These are Angul, Bhadrak, Berhampur, Dhenkanal, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road, Khurda Road, Balangir, Sambalpur, Titlagarh Junction, Koraput and Rayagada. The others include Palasa, Srikakulam Road and Vizianagaram stations in Andhra Pradesh and Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh. Balasore, the 12th station from Odisha, comes under the South Eastern Railway (SER) zone.
The VSS system is now available at major stations like Bhubaneswar, Puri, Cuttack, Rourkela and Jharsuguda in Odisha.
As a part of the project, CCTV cameras will be installed at waiting halls, reservation counters, parking areas, main entrance/exit, platforms, foot over bridges, booking offices of the railway stations.
Aruna Singh, chairman and managing director, RailTel, said the implementation of the project will be fast-tracked. The most modern software and hardware will be used in this project, she added.
Official sources said this system will have a network of CCTV cameras, which are being networked on optical fiber cable. The video feed of the CCTV cameras will be displayed not only at local railway protection force (RPF) posts but also at a centralized CCTV control room at divisional and zonal level. The CCTV cameras of stations and video feeds will be monitored at these three levels to ensure enhanced safety and security at railway premises, said the ECoR statement.
The recording of the video feeds from CCTV cameras of stations will be stored in the nearest RPF Thana/Post for 30 days for playback, post event analysis and for investigation purposes. Important videos will be stored for a longer duration at data centres and RPF police station/post by using additional 10 percent storage, said the railway sources.