Delhi govt installs 2.75 lakh CCTVs in first phase, work underway to install 1.4 lakh more cameras

New Delhi: Ever since coming into power, the Kejriwal government has maintained a gold standard of delivering upon its promises. Delhi ranks highest across the world in CCTVs per square mile; Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Government delivers on its promise. This achievement comes as another feather in the cap of the Kejriwal Government which has been completely devoted to its vision of good governance and people-oriented groundwork.

CM Arvind Kejriwal, listening to the demands of the people of Delhi, took up the largest public safety initiative by far in the history of Delhi and took a resolve for installing CCTVs throughout the national capital. Delhi has now surpassed cities like London, Shanghai, New York and Singapore to rank number one across the globe in terms of CCTVs installed per square mile. In an analysis of 150 cities across the world, Delhi topped with 1826 CCTVs per square mile. It is noteworthy that no other Indian city is even close to Delhi, which has 3 times the CCTVs than Chennai and 11 times that of Mumbai per square mile. Despite continuous roadblocks by the LG & the Centre, the Kejriwal Government did not deter in enhancing women’s safety in Delhi and even sat on a dharna at the LG House in order to pave the way for the CCTV project.

CM Arvind Kejriwal expressed his delight over the numbers on Twitter and said, “I feel proud to say that Delhi beat cities like Shanghai, New York and London with most CCTV cameras per square mile across the world. At first, Delhi has 1826 cameras, while at second, London has 1138 cameras per square mile. My compliments to the Delhi Government’s officers and engineers who worked on the project like a mission and achieved the feat in such a short time.”

Delhi Government has fulfilled the promise it made to the people of Delhi and delivered CCTV coverage to the city. This move came after the repeated demands of citizens for CCTV coverage in public areas of the city. The Public Works Department of the Government of Delhi took up the process of acquiring and installing 2.75 lakh CCTVs in phase one of the project. A further 1.4 lakh CCTVs are in the process of installation at present. 

Central Government used all kinds of obstacles possible to stop installation of CCTVs

It is noteworthy that all kinds of obstacles were put in the way to stop this initiative of the Delhi Government; the Lieutenant Governor, citing concerns against CCTVs in Delhi, arbitrarily formed a committee on the matter that would in effect bypass the people’s elected government. CM Arvind Kejriwal led the Delhi Government to resist this and refused to back down despite all the pressure from the Centre.

The LG’s committee further proposed bringing back License Raj in the city and recommended that it be made mandatory to obtain licences to install CCTV cameras in Delhi be it a public body or a private one.This would have in effect led to red tapism which would require citizens to seek licences from the police to put up CCTVs.

It is due to the persistence and penance by the CM who sat on a dharna and constantly protested at LG House against his arbitrary orders that the way for the execution of the CCTV project could be paved. 

People of Delhi played an active role in the CCTV project

Delhi's public spaces are the best monitored in India, and is one of the few cities globally where the community plays an active role in controlling their own security. The project of installing CCTVs in Delhi exemplifies Swaraj; RWAs were involved in surveying the locations where the CCTVs should be put up, not just gated colonies but all localities of Delhi, including slums, were covered in the project.

What steps have been taken to address the privacy of the people of Delhi?

All CCTV feeds are highly secure, with hardware monitored by the community, feeds accessible only to authorised users, and the system itself capable of automatic health checkups to detect disturbances and intrusions of the connections.

The Delhi Government ensures the security and privacy of all feeds collected, and ensures that it is only used for authorised purposes by authorised users. 

Delhi surpassed 150 cities globally in terms of Cameras Per Square Mile

Delhi ranks number one in the list at 1826 cameras per square mile and is followed by London at 1,138, Chennai at 609, Shenzhen(China) at 520, Wuxi(China) at 472, Qingdao(China) at 415, Shanghai(China) at 408, Singapore at 387, Changsha(China) at 353 and Wuhan(China) 339 in the list of top 10 cities in the metric. 

Only 3 Indian cities feature in the top 20, while Delhi is at rank 1, Chennai at rank 3, Mumbai is at rank 18 with 157 cameras per square mile.

Key facts of the project:

A- The Delhi Government’s CCTV project is highly innovative and uses the latest technology standards for quality, privacy, and automated tamper monitoring. Innovations were introduced right from the rollout to the installation of the system, which was done in collaboration with Police, RWAs/Market Associations and PWD.

B- Under the entire scheme, each RWA/ Market Association has 30 to 40 cameras to cover their respective areas.

C- 2.75 lakh CCTVs provided were installed in phase one with a further 1.4 lakh CCTVs in the process of installation. 

D- Before CCTV deployment, General Body Meetings with representatives of PWD, Police, RWA/Market Association were conducted to decide the location of the CCTVs, with a form being submitted detailing the same.

E- Camera feed will only be provided to authorised users, namely PWD Command Centre, located in PWD HQ at ITO, RWA Monitoring Rooms, Police.

F- Camera monitored areas are clearly marked with signage. A Panic Button will be provided in the area and also be clearly marked, which will trigger SMS alerts to RWA, Police and PWD Command Centre.