From the rising graph of sales of inexpensive Chinese-made CCTV cameras like the ones available in Gaffar Market to sophisticated gizmos such as robotic sensors, manufacturers and vendors of security equipment are targeting an expanding customer base — hotels, corporate houses and the services industry. Understandably, the hotel industry has taken the lead in gearing up. The Taj Group, for instance, recently placed orders for 22 X-ray baggage-inspection systems from Smiths Detection, a leading supplier of baggage scanners.

Even companies that did most of their business with the Government have capitalised on the boom. Post 26/11, Security Shoppe, which has the distribution rights for Garrett security systems, and had earlier supplied items like door-frames and hand-held metal detectors to the Special Protection Group and for use in Parliament, now has orders from ITC, Taj, Hyatt, Imperial, Radisson hotels. “The demand is high from the hospitality sector,” says Anup Gulati, MD, Security Shoppe. The Sheraton Hotel, Agra, for example, had a “comprehensive” CCTV surveillance system but not a compatible recording system. Soon after the attacks, the hotel invested in a monitoring room where video records can be stored for up to two months.

The Oberoi Group is taking stringent measures to galvanise security. “We are working with a leading international security consultant to devise and assist us in further enhancing the crisis management programme for all properties,” informs Ketaki Narain, director, corporate communications.

Video door-phones are also gaining popularity. The Sheraton Hotel, New Delhi, has an exclusive floor reserved for women travelling alone. Each of them now has a new video door-phone installed outside.

The security industry is also expanding its product range to suit needs, post 26/11.

“One of the fastest selling gadgets is the SABRE 4000 which is basically a hand-held trace detector for explosives, chemical agents, toxic industrial chemicals or narcotics,” says Lalit K Srivastava, head of sales and marketing (Asia Pacific), Smiths Detection. This gadget can detect and identify over 40 ‘offensive’ substances in 20 seconds. Among those who have purchased the equipment are Shangri-La Hotel and Le Meridien.

International firms, too, are hard-selling their products. Italian company Elsag Datamat is in the Capital to market two of its systems to the police —- a patrol car-mounted license plate reader that can scan and verify 500 vehicle license plates per minute and a hand-held portable fingerprint reader to ascertain the identity of a suspect on the move. In addition, Gridbots, a robotics firm is demonstrating the capabilities of a mini-robot called the Humming Bird. This palm-sized ‘car’, with sensors for smoke, temperature and hazardous gases, also has an inbuilt microphone, speaker and video camera. The images and other related information can be relayed, real-time, to the person controlling it.

Shopping malls have equipped themselves with the latest gizmos. The corporate sector has also woken up to the need of installing multi-layered security systems. Take Polaris Software Labs in Gurgaon, which just acquired a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)-based security system. The housing sector, which didn’t look beyond sturdy padlocks until recently, is witnessing a technology upgrade. “In a residential project of Jaipuria Constructions, each of the 1,103 houses has a video-door phone and CCTV surveillance system,” informs Pramod Verma, MD of Vantage Security.

—With Manu Pubby and Ritu Sarin

(Tomorrow: Security industry can’t keep pace with manpower requirements)