Controversy ahead of CCTV launch

Even as the home department is going ahead with the inauguration of the much-awaited ambitious CCTV project on Monday, which will bring the entire city of Mumbai and its suburbs under CCTV surveillance, a writ petition seeking quashing of the contract to a private firm and issuing a fresh tender process is pending in the high court. After the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, a CCTV surveillance project was envisaged but due to some or the other problem the project did not materialise for years.

The writ petition states, among other things, “The tender was awarded in breach of the tender conditions. Each bidder was required to obtain minimum 70% in the overall technical evaluation and minimum 60% in each sub category. In the category “People”, the private firm has obtained 11.5 out of 20 i.e. 57.5% of the marks. Despite not receiving the minimum marks, the firm got the contract.”

NCP leader Dhananjay Munde too has taken objection to awarding of the contract. According to a press note released by Mr Munde and according to sources who lost out on the project to the private firm that eventually won the contract, the firm that has been awarded the contract “does not have the expertise to undertake the massive project.” “Some of the features like number plate recognition software, face detection, gunshot sound identification, crowd management software are not in place. Furthermore, out of the 1,000 odd CCTV cameras that has been installed, only 100 are functioning,” they said.

When contacted, additional chief secretary home department K.P. Bakshi rubbished all the allegations. Mr Bakshi said the cameras not being functional does not mean they are not in a working condition. The installation is a gradual process and all the cameras will be made functional gradually, he added.

Mr Bakshi also said the entire project is supposed to finish by October next year and by this time all the promised features in the tender — like number plate recognition software, face detection, gunshot sound identification, crowd management software — would be added. He also disagreed that the private firm lacked expertise. Mr Bakshi said, “It is a consciously made decision. All these issues were not made over a period of one year. Why are they picking it up now ”