More than 10,500 CCTV cameras being installed in Surat, Vadodara

Surat/Vadodara (Gujarat) [India], December 16 : More than 10,500 CCTV cameras are being installed in Surat and Vadodara. Cameras are also being installed in 52 municipalities and 80 inter-state entry and exit points to use the system for traffic management, enforcement, and criminal case detection.
More than 7,000 CCTV cameras at around 1,200 traffic junctions, entry-exit points and other strategic locations have been installed in 41 places, including 34 district headquarters, six pilgrimage centres, and Statue of Unity (SoU), Ektanagar under the VISWAS Project.
34 'Netram' (District Level Command & Control Centre) have been established in each of the districts, and Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) has been established, a press release issued by the Gujarat Police said.
10,000 body-worn cameras and 19 drone-based camera systems have been integrated with the CCTV camera system.
TRINETRA: An integrated command and control centre (i3C) has been set up in the Police Bhawan Campus, Gandhinagar, integrating CCTV cameras, body-worn cameras and drone camera system, the release said.
These CCTV cameras will be installed at important entry-exit points of municipalities, strategic places, congested places, and major traffic junctions with facilities like the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system for monitoring suspicious activities. CCTV cameras will also be installed to issue e-challans against traffic violators and monitor other security-related activities (fixed cameras).
Apart from this, CCTV cameras are being installed at the entry-exit points of the borders with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli (DDNH) to prevent inter-state criminal activities.
54 cities have been divided into four clusters, and work has been assigned to different agencies for implementation. BSNL has been assigned the work of providing point-to-point connectivity at all the locations, the press note stated.
During the period 2018-22, the detection rate has increased by eight per cent in cases of all theft, a 10 per cent increase in the detection rate of robbery cases; seven per cent increase in the detection rate of house theft cases and 1 per cent increase in the detection rate of dacoity cases.
CCTV cameras have been used effectively in traffic management and enforcement during more than 5,500 such events in the state.
During the period 2018-22, the number of road accidents has decreased by 16 per cent, injuries due to road accidents have decreased by 13 per cent and deaths due to road accidents have decreased by 5 per cent, the press release said.
VISWAS Project has been recognised at national and international level and awarded by various organisations in different categories, like National eGovernance Gold Award (2022), FICCI SMART Policing Award (2022), Skoch Gold Award (2022), Project Management Institute (PMI) USA (2021), Smart Cities India Award (2021), Governance Now India Police Award (2020) and Skoch Gold Award (2019).
A meeting with all the agencies and other stakeholders was held on December 15 to kick off the Project.
"The photo-based security system created under the VISWAS Project has been extremely useful for the State Police. It is being used extensively for the prevention, detection and investigation of criminal cases, and traffic management and enforcement," Narasimha Komar, Additional Director General of Police (Administration) and Chairman of the VISWAS Task Force said.
"The expansion of the network of CCTV cameras to Tier II and III cities and inter-state borders will lead to a 'force multiplier' effect and enhance the capabilities of Gujarat Police manifolds," he said.