In the wake of the terror attacks in Mumbai, the Ahmedabad Police has decided to install 300 CCTV cameras at over 100 important locations across the city.

In order to roll out the project, there is a plan to form a citizen’s security trust, which will raise the funds.

“With the recent terror attacks in Mumbai, we feel there is an urgent need to have a network of CCTV cameras in a city like Ahmedabad, which has always been on the terror target,” Police Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sinha, told PTI.

“The Government procedure takes time, but we require the CCTV network to be installed at the earliest. Therefore, we plan to form ‘Ahmedabad Citizen Security Trust (ACST)’, which would fund the project for the initial three years, after which, it would be merged into the Government programme,” Mr Sinha said.

“The funds raised through donations would be used only for the purpose of installing CCTV cameras across the city at over 100 locations,” he said.

Under the project, the ACST would hire the services of BSNL, which will install 300 CCTV cameras at over 100 important locations across the city, including the entry-exit points, malls, sensitive areas, railway stations, bus stops and airports.

“Images from the CCTV cameras would be transmitted through 3G broadband network to the police control room, from where, monitoring would be done,” the Police Commissioner said.

He said the cameras would not only help in the case of terror attacks, but also in the detection of local crime and traffic-related offences.

The police commissioner said that such systems need to be installed immediately, considering the terror threat.

According to Mr Sinha, BSNL has agreed to be part of the project.

“The ownership of the CCTV cameras and broadband network will remain with the BSNL. It will be hired by the ACST for an initial period of three years, which is likely to cost approximately Rs one crore,” he said, adding that BSNL is likely to give its final proposal within a week.

He said that BSNL has begun conducting a test drive for such a system at 42 locations in the city since Saturday which will continue till July 26.

“We also plan to hold a meeting with potential donors in the city. We plan to collect Rs 3 crore initially, which will be sufficient for the first three years,” Mr Sinha said.

He said if more funds are collected after deducting the cost of CCTV camera network, the ACST could also take up awareness activities on security issues in the city.

The State Government has already decided to install CCTV-based City Surveillance and Intelligent Traffic Management System in major cities of Gujarat to monitor the traffic in sensitive areas, for which tenders have been floated. Initially the system would be installed in the cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Gandhinagar and Somnath.

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