Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the Delhi government had delivered on yet another significant promise as the Capital is now on top of a list of cities across the world on the number of CCTVs installed per square mile.
Top 3 Indian cities
Delhi has 1,826 CCTVs installed per square mile, which is three times higher than Chennai, 11 times higher than Mumbai and has surpassed cities like London, Shanghai, New York and Singapore to rank number one across the globe in this respect, Mr. Kejriwal said.
“I feel proud to say that Delhi beat cities like Shanghai, New York and London with most CCTV cameras per square mile across the world. At first, Delhi has 1,826 cameras, while at second, London has 1,138 cameras per square mile” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted.
“My compliments to the Delhi government’s officers and engineers who worked on the project as a mission and achieved the feat in such a short time,” he added.
The Public Works Department (PWD) took up the process of acquiring and installing 2.75 lakh CCTVs in phase one of the project and 1.4 lakh more CCTVs are in the process of installation at present, the government stated.
“All kinds of obstacles”, the government alleged, were put in its way to stall this initiative; one such development was the Lieutenant Governor, citing concerns against CCTVs in Delhi, “arbitrarily” forming a committee on the matter that would in effect bypass the elected government.
“It is due to the persistence and penance by the CM who constantly protested outside L-G House against his arbitrary orders that the way for the execution of the CCTV project could be paved,” the government stated.
All CCTV feeds are highly secure with hardware monitored by the community, feeds accessible only to authorised users and the system itself capable of automatic health checkups to detect disturbances and intrusions of the connections, the government said.
It added that only 3 Indian cities feature in the top 20 —Delhi at rank 1, Chennai at rank 3 and Mumbai at rank 18.
Under the entire scheme, each RWA/Market Association has 30 to 40 cameras to cover their respective areas and 2.75 lakh CCTVs provided were installed in phase one with a further 1.4 lakh CCTVs in the process of installation.
Camera monitored areas are clearly marked with signage. A panic button will be provided in the area and also be clearly marked, which will trigger SMS alerts to RWA, Police and the PWD Command Centre, the government added.
