Police seek more cameras to bring entire city under cover

Proposal outlines reasons for including new areas, replacing 5-year-old cameras

Tight vigil: Speed detector cameras installed on Marine Drive.

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police, in order to step up the vigilance, have submitted a proposal to the State government seeking permission to double the number of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in the city.

On October 16, 2016, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had inaugurated the CCTV network of 4,717 cameras at 1,510 locations. Last month, the police sent the proposal to the Home Department, seeking 5,000 more cameras.

Confirming the development, Mr. Fadnavis told

The Hindu , “The proposal has been sent by the Mumbai Police, and the additional chief secretary, home, is scrutinising it.”

Senior officers said the new cameras will replace the 100 cameras installed around five years ago. “Some of those cameras are not in working condition. There are also some spots which are not completely covered by the existing ones. All these points are outlined in our proposal,” an officer said.

On March 24, dental college intern Dipti Lahamate was run over by a Honda City, which jumped the signal at Taraporewala Aquarium on Marine Drive. Dipti succumbed to her injuries on March 30, and the police later found out that the camera mounted atop the signal, which was one of the older ones, had been out of order for several days.

“The cameras, which were made operational in 2016, come under a well-defined contract with a private firm, as per which regular maintenance of the cameras is the firm’s responsibility. The older ones are not covered under a similar arrangement, and as a result, the camera at Marine Drive being out of order seems to have gone overlooked. The aim is to do away with the old ones and cover the entire city with cameras under a similar maintenance contract,” another officer said.

The police have, in their proposal, included a list of areas not covered or partially covered under the existing network, and reasons outlining why it is necessary to cover these areas.

“While we do not have statistics of the number of crimes solved solely due to the CCTVs, it is a fact that crimes, including murders, riots and chain-snatching, have been solved after the perpetrators were identified on the basis of CCTV footage,” the officer said.