10,000 CCTV cameras in city in two years

Hyderabad, March 22 (INN): Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy informed the Telangana Legislative Assembly on Tuesday that the proposal to install one lakh Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in Hyderabad City as part of security measures was under consideration of State Government.

Replying to a question raised by TRS MLA V. Srinivas Goud during Question Hour, the minister said that as part of the Citywide CCTV System, the State Government would set up 10,000 CCTV cameras in all sensitive and hyper-sensitive areas, at all input junctions while about 90,000 cameras are expected to be set up under Community CCTV Project as per the provisions of Public Safety Measures Enforcement Act. These one lakh CCTV cameras will be connected to the Command Control Centres at Police Station Level, Zonal DCP office and Centralised Main Command Control Centre at Banjara Hills.

Data will be stored for 30 days and analysed at Command Control Centre. Any offender entering Hyderabad City will be identified with the help of CCTV Surveillance System immediately. For this a 24-Stories Command Control Centre at Road No. 12, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad is planned for construction to act as Technology Fusion Centre which will be helpful for all the government departments including the police.

Nayani informed that the project cost of the Citywide CCTV System is Rs. 657 Crore and the Project Cost of the Command Control Centre is Rs. 302 Crore. Therefore, a total amount of Rs. 959 crore would be spent on the project which would be completed in two years, he said.

The Home Minister said that the present CCTV cameras proved quite helpful in cracking some major cases. Citing an instance, he said that footage of accused in Abhay Kidnap and Murder Case was recorded in over 100 cameras. Similarly, the accused in attack case on pharma industrialist at KBR Park was identified with the help of CCTV footage. He said that the CCTV cameras would help the police not only in resolving the cases, but also in prevention of crime. He said installation of one CCTV camera would be equivalent to deploying 100 personnel.

Asking a supplementary question, Srinivas Goud urged the Home Minister to ensure that all the CCTV cameras are of standard quality. He said in some recent cases it was found that some cameras were dysfunctional. He also demanded payment of 30% allowance for Home Guards in the State.