Aurangabad on surveillance of hi-tech CCTV cameras;

Rafique Aziz

Aurangabad, April 23:

The Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) has installed 700 CCTV cameras to watchdog on the happenings taking place in every corner of the city, under the Safe City project, a couple of years ago. Now, it will be undertaking an advanced hi-tech project ‘Integrated Security and City Operations Platform (ISCOP)’ to detect micro-level happenings in the city, soon. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 24 crore and will be completed under Smart City Mission.

ASCDCL project manager Syed Faiz Ali

said," A total of 162 hi-tech CCTV cameras with strong resolutions will be installed, just a foot above the previously installed CCTV cameras, but at selected places or points, in consultation with the traffic police. It includes

90 ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras; 32 RLVD (Red Light Violation Detection) cameras and 30 FR (Face Recognition) cameras."

The meeting of ASCDCL's board of directors (BoD) held in March 2022 passed the proposal. A Mumbai-based agency has been shortlisted to execute the task within six months. It will have to maintain it for five years. The project will be launched in coordination with the offices of the AMC, ASCDCL and the commissioner of police (CP).

Why more cameras?

ANPR cameras will be installed on all the entry and exit points of the city, while the RLVD cameras will be installed at different important locations and points within city limits. These cameras will focus on vehicles number plates passing by the city or moving in the city, after violating traffic norms like jumping of traffic signals, hitting any vehicle or pedestrain, rash driving, vehicle lifting, etc. These cameras will be linked to e-challan system of the RTO. The violator will get a challan of fine on his postal address.

The FRC spots will be installed in consultation with senior police officials as these cameras will be linked to the state police's Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS). These cameras will help detect persons wanted in any crime. For eg: If suppose Pune police station upload’s the photograph of a wanted person and if he is moving around in Aurangabad, the FRC will blink and alert the police and staff on duty in the Command and Control Centres (CCC). The talks between the ASCDCL chief executive officer A K Pandey and the commissioner of police Nikhil Gupta has been done recently.

Law and Order Management

ISCOP will also provide public address system at 450 junctions in the city. The police chowky or police station will use it to control traffic during the peak hours or mob to maintain law and order situation emerging during curfew, riot or calamity, said Ali.

Other features of ISCOP

1. Community Surveillance Capabilities - Any citizen installing CCTV cameras (outside his home/shop), can also integrate with the project. Later, the CCTV surveillance will be done by police simultaneously.

2. Social Media Monitoring - Presently, the police has to crack hardnut in finding out the culprit wanted in crimes like creating communal tension, hatred or rift in the society, through wrong posting of objectionable content or video clips, on social media. Now, a focussed watch will be kept on the social media platforms.

3.Drone Surveillance - The ASCDCL will also set up a system and provide 5 drone cameras to the police.