The Maharashtra government has decided to install 4,800 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the city by June 2016. So far, it has installed 650 such cameras from Colaba to Worli for security reasons.
“We are expediting the installation of the CCTV cameras by June 2016. We have planned to install 4,800 CCTVs and, if needed, the number will go up to 5,000. Larsen & Toubro has been awarded the work and the first phase is already over,” additional chief secretary of home department K.P. Bakshi told The Asian Age. As per the government contract with the Larsen & Toubro, the deadline for installation is October 2016. However, the home department’s emphasis is on completing the CCTV installation before the monsoon, the official said.
After a delay of seven years, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the installation of CCTV cameras in south Mumbai on November 30. However, the seafronts have not been included in the surveillance.
The next phase will include the seafronts of Girgaum Chowpatty, Bombay Port Trust, Worli Seaface and MMRDA creek too. The total cost of the first phase was '85 crore and the entire project will cost '953 crore.
The project was announced after 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai in 2008. The committee led by former bureaucrat Ram Pradhan that was appointed to recommend security measures to be taken in the city had mentioned the installation of CCTV cameras. However, this task was caught red tape and it took seven years for its commencement. There was inordinate delay in the project for various reasons, attracting lot of flak from the Opposition over the government’s willingness to implement it. The initial cost of the project was '700 crore but it escalated due to delay.
