Northern railway stations to get 573 new CCTVs

The Northern railway is reportedly planning to use Nirbhaya Fund for the first time by installing 573 new CCTV cameras across 20 stations. The at-risk stations have been identified by studying several locations where crime rate is higher than normal. Reports suggest that Rs 12 crore from the fund has been allocated to this exercise. At present, only 9 out of 213 stations have CCTV cameras. New Delhi has the highest number of cameras with 152 installed CCTVs. Work on the same will begin in the coming months and is expected to be completed by March 2018. In terms of other security measures, 300 trains are escorted by both the Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police. Efforts are also being also made to remove unauthorised vendors and trespassers from the railway premises. Until last month, Northern Railway had recorded a total of 16,504 cases under the Railway Act and collected fines of Rs 36.18 lakh.