Western Railway will install recording system to monitor local train crew and increase safety

On February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a record sum of INR 1.10 lakh crores for the Railways.

Besides, the INR 2.8 crores project has been approved by the railway ministry and has also been included in the Union budget 2021-2022. The Union budget has included installation and commissioning of video and crew voice recording system in driving cabs of electrical multiple unit (EMU) local trains.

Taking that into consideration, the Western Railway (WR), crew voice and video recording systems will be introduced in the suburban local trains in a bid to increase safety of commuters travelling on the suburban network. The system will be placed in 110 trains.

Audio and video recording will be installed in the cabins of motorman and guards with one camera installed inside cabins and one outside.

With this move, the zonal railway aims to scrutinise the operation of local trains. The system will monitor the actions taken by the motormen and guard including operations of train at speed restrictions, signal passed at danger (SPAD) when railway signals are red indicating a local train ahead, and also railway accidents.

Earlier, both the WR and Central Railway had held counselling sessions for motormen regarding safe operations of local train services. The sessions were operated after incident of SPAD occurred on the railway tracks.