The Capital has surpassed cities like London, Washington and Paris and ranks number one in terms of CCTV coverage in the world, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday. He also announced the Government’s decision to increase the quantum of CCTV coverage in the city.
After the installation of 1.40 lakh cameras under phase 2 of the project over the coming days to the existing tally of 2.75 lakh, Delhi will have a total of 4.15 lakh CCTV cameras, Mr. Kejriwal said.
“Over the last seven years, 2.75 lakh CCTV cameras have been installed in each and every corner of the city. In the entire world, Delhi ranks the highest when it comes to the number of CCTV cameras per square miles in a city,” he said.
1,826 per square mile
“In a survey conducted covering 150 States, Delhi came first with 1,826 CCTV cameras per square mile. Behind Delhi is London with 1,138 cameras per square mile, showing a vast difference. So, we are far ahead of London, New York, Singapore and Paris to the point that there is no comparison,” he also said.
In India, he further said, Chennai bagged the second rank, but Delhi had thrice the number of CCTV cameras and 12 times the number in Mumbai.
Women’s safety had improved on the one hand and on the other, these had significantly helped the police force in the investigation of a lot of crimes, and incidents caught on CCTV cameras had facilitated catching culprits.
The CCTV cameras being installed now are being sourced from Bharat Electronics Ltd., which is under the Central Government.
The cameras are extremely modern and state-of-the-art devices. Apart from having four megapixels, they are capable of sounding an alarm to alert the command centre they are connected to in case a camera has been damaged or a feature stops working.
“Thirty days recording can be kept in these cameras. Only 3-4 authorised personnel will have access to the live feed, and will be able to view it from anywhere in the world. A command centre based in Delhi receives the live feed of all CCTV cameras for real-time monitoring. These devices have four megapixel cameras with night vision, providing optimum video quality,” he added.
