Thane railway station, the hub for both local and outstation trains, has 35 CCTV cameras installed all over the station. If that sounds reassuring, it is time to do a re-think. A report in this paper yesterday stated that many of these cameras do not work, so they are mere showpieces masquerading as security surveillance. To compound matters, even images from those that do work, shockingly cannot be viewed by cops for lack of a monitoring system, and this has been the case since the last two months.

There are 35 CCTV cameras installed under the Satis Bridge (Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme) and out of them 23 work. The LCD monitoring system is dysfunctional. Work is on to directly connect the cameras to a command centre at the Thane Commissioner's office. The LCD screen, the monitoring system, was reportedly gathering dust.