The Western Railway (WR) has awarded the tender to Zicom, a company dealing in electronic security systems. The company will install and maintain these 463 cameras for the next one year in addition to the existing 57 it has already installed at seven major stations on the Western line.

“Soon, 520 cameras (57 plus 463) will be operational at the entry and exit points of our suburban stations. It will be a big achievement as far as security is concerned. As WR has hired these cameras from Zicom, it will be the duty of the company to maintain them,” Satyaprakash, the divisional railway manager (WR), told Newsline.

“The footage from these cameras will be saved for seven days and will be monitored by Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel at each station,” he said.

According to WR officials, the cameras will be installed over the next one month at the entry and exit points of all stations between Churchgate and Virar. According to WR sources, the tenders were floated three months ago and the contract was awarded to Zicom last week.

As of now, 57 cameras are operational on the Western line at Churchgate, Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra suburban, Bandra Terminus, Andheri and Borivali stations.

On the Central line, 70 cameras are operational at eight major stations — CST main, CST suburban, Dadar, Kurla, LTT, Thane, Kalyan and Vashi.

According to Central Railway sources, a proposal for 1,500 cameras was sent to the Railway Board a year ago. “But we are still waiting for the approval,” said S C Mudgerikar, the chief public relations officer, CR.