The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has clarified that even when some of the CCTV cameras inside its trains are under maintenance, the covered area mostly does not have any blind spot, with other cameras working. The DMRC issued the clarification in response to A The study is based on data obtained under the RTI Act Which stated that 300-500 CCTV cameras inside Delhi Metro trains were found malfunctioning every year between 2020 and 2024.
“Even when these CCTV cameras are under maintenance, the area remains mostly free from any blind spot due to the wide coverage available through neighboring CCTV cameras. It is due to the effectiveness of this powerful mechanism that no major instances of any untoward incident have been reported all these years,” the DMRC said.
A DMRC spokesperson said the study drew “misleading conclusions”, and The Indian Express published its findings. “…It (300-500) is an annual number – which means that on any given day, the number of CCTV cameras undergoing maintenance is just one or two out of a pool of around 24,000 (11,000 in trains and 13,000 in metro stations), which are running smoothly every day,” he said, adding that the annual numbers of non-functional cameras constitute only a tiny percentage on a given day.
“DMRC would like to strongly refute such misleading conclusion being arrived at from this highly selective data which implies that women’s safety is at risk in Metro premises due to non-operation of CCTV cameras,” the spokesperson added.
The data was shared by the DMRC in response to an RTI filed by Mishthi Khurana and Yashika Jain, principal investigators of the study. The report is based on an analysis of the RTI response, random checks at stations, interviews with 10 employees across Metro stations, and a survey of around 70 women in the age group of 18 to 30 years who used the Delhi Metro.
The women’s safety report, ‘Between Stops’, was launched on Saturday at the HAQ Summit 2025, titled ‘Her Right to Roam’, at the Crafts Museum in Pragati Maidan.
(Tags for translation) Delhi Metro Trains CCTVs
