The electronically operated state-of-art under-vehicle surveillance system (USS), installed at Secretariat five years ago by the Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) was finally activated on Monday.
Ministers, officials and employees were made to instead pass through the USS. D. Vasantha Rao, technical officer, ECIL, supervised the experimental operation.
The USS consists of two cameras installed in a small pit in the middle of the road, a boom barrier and a ‘tyre killer'. The camera would ‘see' if any additional fitting is made to the bottom of the vehicle, such as bombs, as it passes over the trench and the boom barrier would rise.
A driver who trespasses when the boom barrier is closed would have the front tyres of his vehicle punctured by the sharp spikes of the tyre killer. Security personnel at the reception of the main gate could see every going on of the USS on the screen.
Cost
The government introduced the USS at a cost of Rs. 1 crore following the terrorist attack on Parliament. However, it has been lying unused since then, as is a separate surveillance system for two-wheelers.
