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  Maharashtra CM to unveil CCTVs, seafront still vulnerable

Maharashtra CM to unveil CCTVs, seafront still vulnerable

Published : Nov 30, 2015, 1:35 am IST
Updated : Nov 30, 2015, 1:35 am IST

After a delay of seven years, the state government will inaugurate the CCTV cameras installed in South Mumbai on Monday.

After a delay of seven years, the state government will inaugurate the CCTV cameras installed in South Mumbai on Monday. However, the state chose to leave the seafronts vulnerable and had not included them in the initial CCTV plan. It is only after the security agencies informed the government that seafronts had been left out that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis decided to instal CCTV cameras at Girgaon Chowpatty, Bombay Port Trust, Worli seaface and MMRDA creek last week. The CCTV cameras will be installed at the seafronts only in the second phase which will begin next year.

Mr Fadnavis will unveil the CCTV cameras at the Gateway of India. It was recommended after the 26/11 terror attacks in 2008 that the city be monitored with CCTVs. “The intelligence agencies insisted that the cameras should be installed at seafronts, as the terrorists had entered from the sea route. It was only after this realisation that the CM agreed to instal them at four locations. It will be installed in the next phase of the CCTV,” an official from the home department said.

A total of 6,000 CCTVs will be installed for the city in the second and third phase. “Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will unveil the CCTV cameras on November 30 at Gateway of India near Taj. At least 650 cameras were installed in the first phase,” additional chief secretary K.P. Bakshi said.

The total cost of the first phase was of Rs 85 crore and the entire project will cost Rs 953 crore. Larsen and Toubro had got the contract of the project and started its work from February this year. The work for the next phase will begin from June 2016 and be completed in October 2016, Mr Bakshi said. The project was announced after the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai in 2008. Former bureaucrat Ram Pradhan Committee was appointed to recommend the security measures to be taken in the city and had mentioned the CCTV installation. But it was stuck in red tape and took seven years for its commencement. There was inordinate delay in project for various reasons attracting a lot of flak from the opposition on the government’s willingness to implement it. The project initially proposed was of Rs 700 crore but the cost has progressively escalated due to the delay.