New Delhi, dt. 03.11.2025 In reference to some media reports wherein misleading conclusions have been drawn based on a RTI reply regarding functionality of CCTVs in Metro, DMRC would like to clarify following points to better understand and appreciate the measures in place since beginning for its commuters especially women commuters:- DMRC is considered one of the best modes of public transport in terms of providing safe, secure and seamless travel to its commuters including additional safety measures for its women commuters. Besides having a dedicated coach for them in its fleet of over 350 trains, there is CCTV surveillance too inside trains by around 11000 CCTV cameras. Inside every coach there are dedicated passenger emergency alarm buttons too to report any incident/ misbehavior etc. for real time response from DMRC/CISF personnel at the very next station which is mostly a minute away. All its Metro stations are equally under surveillance through a robust mechanism of around 13000 CCTVs. DMRC station level CCTVs are strategically placed at entry/exit points, ticket counters, escalators and platforms to monitor crowd and facilitate passengers and are monitored and maintained on a regular basis. All cameras, if need any maintenance are rectified on priority on the same day itself. Similarly, any train based CCTVs requiring maintenance are immediately replaced at maintenance depots to ensure that no train is inducted in revenue services with faulty CCTV. However, it is also pertinent to mention that as a result of continuous use, these cameras too need periodic maintenance or develop some technical issue occasionally, resulting into minimal non functionality during such a time when they are being attended/rectified on top priority/immediately. As is the inference being made based on RTI response and reported by some section of media, DMRC would like to strongly rebut such a misleading inference being made out of this extremely selective data implying that women safety is compromised in metro premises due to non-functionality of CCTVs. DMRC would like to reinforce that out of 24000 CCTVs functional in its network daily, the annual figures of non-functional cameras (which are rather more under routine maintenance for a brief period than to say non-functional) as given in response to one RTI, is in the range of 300-500 CCTVs only. This figure of 300-500 is not a daily figure. Rather, it’s an annual figure which means on any given day the number of CCTVs under maintenance are just one or two from a pool of around 24000 which are running smoothly every single day. This establishes the fact that the CCTVs in Metro premises are functioning to their optimum use every day and only a negligible % of them were under maintenance on any given day, contrary to what some NGO/media reports have tried to portray. Even in the case of such CCTVs under maintenance, the area mostly remains free from any blind spot due to wide coverage available through adjacent CCTVs. This is due to efficacy of this robust mechanism that no major cases of any untowardly incident have been reported in all these years. DMRC is always committed and sensitive to ensure the safe and secure travel of its passengers and is always at forefront to take necessary actions keeping pace with emerging requirements from time to time. Also, the CCTV cameras on the Metro network are gradually being replaced by more advanced cameras with additional features like video analytics as soon as they reach their end of life period. Moreover, in older fleets with legacy technology, the CCTVs are being retrofitted in a phased manner with new IP based CCTV cameras to further control the maintenance rate. Passenger safety and security is given utmost priority in DMRC maintenance practices including women too for whom apart from above measures, there is a dedicated helpline No. too prominently displayed at stations/trains i.e, -1091 apart from DMRC and CISF’s helpline Nos. 155370 and 155655 respectively. Besides this, a Kali squad is also in place, which is a security initiative by the CISF in the Delhi Metro that uses plainclothes and uniformed female commandos trained in the Filipino martial art, Pekiti-Tirsia Kali. These commandos are time to time deployed to protect women commuters by responding to issues like male intruders in ladies' coaches and other offenses. They are trained to use everyday objects like pens or hairpins as weapons to neutralize threats and are deployed on metro trains and platforms.