2,000 CCTVs to keep vigil at 800 points, Walled City bylanes covered

Vadodara: Soon, every nook and corner of the city will be under round-the-clock surveillance .
The city police and Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) have joined hands to install CCTVs in both old and periphery areas of the city. City police commissioner, Anupam Singh Gahlaut said that over 2,000 CCTVs will be installed at about 800 locations across the city.

“This is an initiative under the Smart City campaign and funded by the state government. A team of policemen had done a survey of the spots that need CCTV coverage and an exhaustive list was prepared,” Gahlaut told TOI.

In the initial phase, we will cover 400 points and then cover the other points with CCTVs in phased manner.

Communally sensitive areas in the old city are on the top priority. “We need to keep an eye on the sensitive areas during festive season. While the main roads are being brought under CCTV surveillance, we are now planning to install the cameras in the by-lanes of the Walled City. “There are certain lanes on Mandvi-Panigate Road, Mandvi-Champaner Road or Panigate-Bhadra Kacheri Road that need to have CCTVs so that we can identify trouble-makers. We earlier had CCTVs of a private firm in many areas of the city but now we want to install our own cameras,” Gahlaut added.

The 400 locations zeroed in for CCTV installation will come under six police stations including City, Panigate, Wadi, Karelibaug, Warasia and Bapod. When asked about the project cost, Gahlaut said that the government may have to spend about Rs 40 crore. “We already underground network of optic fibre so we just need to install poles and switches. It has brought down the project cost. We have already sent a proposal to the state government,” Gahlaut added.

Other 400 CCTVs will be installed in the western parts and the peripheral areas of the city. The police currently has a network of about 300 CCTVs, many of which are being used for issuing e-challans in the busy areas.