CCTVs in buses in Kolkata to make journey safer

Kolkata, April 15: The state-run Calcutta State Transport Corporation has installed CCTVs in 632 buses introduced under the JNNURM scheme to make travel safer for passengers, especially women.

Under the extended JNNURM Project-I, Urban Bus Specification (UBS) II-complied equipment, including three CCTVs, were installed in each bus, CSTC managing director, Bhishmadeb Dasgupta told.

"Two CCTVs are installed inside the bus, one in the front, another at the middle, while the third one is placed outside at the rear of the vehicle," Dasgupta said.

The rear camera would record movement of vehicles on the road in the vicinity, he said.

"CCTV surveillance will make women passengers feel safe to travel in buses even at late hours. The knowledge that the bus is being under CCTV watch will give them confidence to travel," he explained.

Each bus has a storage capacity of 100GB and initially, the footage, captured by the CCTVs would be stored for three days after which it would be overwritten automatically.

"After three days the footage will be overwritten automatically. So people with complaint of any theft or pickpocketing, bad behaviour by the ticket-conductor or the bus driver or any other problem, have to register that within three days," he said, adding that the CCTV footage would also help them investigate accidents.

On receiving complaints, CCTV footages from the concerned bus would be taken into a pendrive and brought to the CSTC headquarters to probe the matter, he said.

Kolkata Police officers have already done an inspection of the buses and were quite satisfied with the camera surveillance.

"Definitely this is a good move and it will hopefully cut down on the number of crimes like molestation, pick-pocketing and snatching," a top officer of the Kolkata Police said.

PTI