The need for CCTV camera surveillance was felt more after serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad in July 2008, killing 56 persons and injuring over 100.
Additional DGP (Administration) A K Singh, who heads the CCTV project committee, said, “The final draft of the CCTV camera project has been handed over to the home department... the department will approve it, and soon after, the monitoring system will start functioning.”
The IT Cell of the home department is expected to approve the draft in a few days.
In the first phase, 500 to 600 cameras would be installed in Ahmedabad, followed by Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot in different phases. Gradually, the project is likely to cover all the districts.
After a detailed analysis, CCTV cameras would be installed at all major road junctions, railway stations, important buildings and sensitive areas where surveillance is required.
The committee, formed in 2009, has finalised a centralised monitoring system to install portable cameras having high definition surveillance lenses. N Code Solutions of the IT division of Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers Chemical Ltd is providing technical support to the Gujarat Police.
The modernisation department is setting up special CCTV control rooms in all the commissionerates and district police headquarters with the main control room in Gandhinagar.
As per the plan, the cameras would be connected to the control room for analysis and saving the footage.
The project was to be implemented in 2009 but it could not take off due to delay in selection of cameras, setting up of monitoring systems and the bandwidth capacity issues in different cities.
In May 2011, cameras were installed at a few spots in Ahmedabad under a pilot project.
“The pilot project in Ahmedabad helped us understand the issues. The cameras manufactured overseas were not suiting the Indian system. Fixed focus lenses cannot work in Gujarat. Technical issues like positioning, lenses, installation points and others have been sorted out,” Singh said.
While the panel was busy finalising the draft, the Surat police proposed a public-private partnership project and invited builders and businessmen to provide financial assistance in installing CCTV cameras at various traffic points.
DIG (Modernisation) Rajiv Ranjan Bhagat said, “All the cameras would work under an integrated system. Besides us, four municipal corporations (of Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara) are also working on the project where important government buildings, offices, civil hospitals and health centres would be covered. The footage of these cameras will also be projected in police control rooms besides their own monitoring rooms at corporations.”
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation was the first to submit a proposal of a budget of Rs 200 crore. The state government has approved the project wherein cameras would be installed in AMC-run hospitals and other buildings.