CCTV cameras to keep hawk’s eye on Delhi

Jan 29, 2010

Manish Anand
New Delhi

Jan. 28: Watch out if you are in a public place in Delhi: soon someone might be watching you closely. Much like London did after the 7/7 bombings of 2005, the city government will install a network of high-resolution CCTV cameras across neighbourhoods, mounted on top of mobile phone towers, to provide real-time footage to the law and order machinery as well as various civic agencies.

A total of 63 such high-resolution cameras will be set up to start with, and more are likely to be added later. This network will be backed up by at least 10 monitoring centres and two control rooms, staffed by police and city government personnel. Agencies like the NDMC, MCD, DJB are likely to utilise the real-time footage from these cameras for their own purposes.
The network is likely to be in place in a couple of months. Delhi government officials are tightlipped on what the project will cost, but point out that it will vastly help different civic agencies and government departments do their work better and improve planning for the city’s development.
The number of cameras will be progressively increased to cover more parts of the city. The entire system is likely to be functional by the time the Commonwealth Games get under way in October.
Officials said the Union urban development ministry as well as different civic agencies will be better positioned to check the menace of unauthorised and illegal constructions with this new tool. The police will find it hugely useful to keep a check on crime and other illegal activity. It will also facilitate better neighbourhood policing. With an increasing number of burglaries taking place across the city, the cameras should help the police to nab culprits more easily, besides serving as a deterrent factor, an official said.
A similar exercise in the MCD’s city zone — intended to check unauthorised constructions — had earlier run into some controversy with residents complaining that the installation of cameras amounted to an invasion of their privacy.

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