Indian Railways look to CCTV to fight battle against touts

New Delhi, Oct 7: To curb malpractices such as black marketing of tickets, the railways will soon be installing Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at Passenger Reservation System (PSR) at major railway stations.

The decision was taken after the Railway Board last week directed all zonal railways to have round-the-clock monitoring at PRS and also ensure that the footage is checked periodically.

The railway ticket reservation centres and booking counters in railway stations in Delhi will now be equipped with CCTVs and jammers to prevent touting.

Four days ago, the railway board issued a circular in this regard. The circular asked major stations to prevent touting by monitoring the activities with the help of these CCTV cameras.

As per a TOI report, "The circular from the railway ministry has asked stations to install the cameras that will send live feed at the time of booking reservations. Commercial inspectors of railways and divisional railway managers will be made responsible for monitoring footage of CCTVs during peak hours and on daily basis."

"Touting has become a huge issue. Very recently, we heard rumours that even Tatkal tickets were being blocked by touts and sold on a premium, so this move was made," An official was quoted as saying in the daily.

"In addition to installation of CCTVs, officials should also be trained to monitor footage to catch the irregularities being carried out at reservation counters. Otherwise it will be difficult for authorities to prevent black marketing of tickets," another senior officer said.

OneIndia News