25.6.08

Mumbai Metro One's trains to have Black Boxes

Mumbai Metro trains will be equipped with black boxes, in all the passenger coaches and the motorman’s cabin. This will be a first in India as neither of the two metro rail services in the country - Delhi and Kolkata - has this hi-tech gadget.
The black box is a secure recorder device which helps to register the audio environment in the decks of major installations or carriers like aircraft, which need high levels of security measures. According to experts, the digital boxes to be fitted in the metro rakes will store the audio - and at times even video - records of at least three-hour duration.All communications, including signals from motormen’s earphones and microphones in passenger bogies, and movements aboard the train would be recorded in these black boxes.
This security system in the air-conditioned coaches will be supported by closed-circuit TVs (CCTVs) and an advanced commuter-driver communication system in emergencies.Commuter trains (both metro and mono) in many countries like England, Japan, America and Germany are fitted with black boxes.

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