Maharashtra's first public-private collaborative surveillance project, wherein private and public establishments in Mumbai will share their CCTV feed with the police, has hit an air pocket with some entities showing reluctance to allow access to their networks over privacy concerns.
Maharashtra's first public-private collaborative surveillance project, wherein private and public establishments in Mumbai will share their CCTV feed with the police, has hit an air pocket with some entities showing reluctance to allow access to their networks over privacy concerns.
The Pradhan Committee, probing the 26/11 terror attack, had pointed to a critical lacunae—that the Mumbai police had no access to cameras put up in private establishments like hotels. The surveillance project consists of a network of 4,717 cameras, installed at 1,510 sensitive locations.
The state wants to tap into the video feeds of 102 high-value targets like the malls, five-star hotels, shops, banks and railway stations, to improve surveillance, enable a faster response through real-time streaming, and enhance the level of protection for these institutions.
Though the CCTV project has gone live, sources admit that the connectivity to these entities is yet to be achieved.
Officials stressed that they would tap into the feeds based on requirements and worst-case scenarios and after getting the consent of the establishments concerned.
"There are apprehensions among some entities. We will need to explain things to them as the project is in public interest," said an official.
"This model has been floated for the first time, and so hitches are natural. On completion, it can be a template for other cities," said a source, adding that participation was voluntary for these 102 institutions. If some fail to come on board, others could be chosen in their place, he stressed. The source pointed to how about 90 per cent of the cameras used in London's mass surveillance project had been set up by private parties.
Home officials, in a meeting on Monday, said that it was decided that the Mumbai police will hold meetings with these establishments to clear misunderstandings and iron out hurdles to complete the project by March. "Work on system integration has started with public establishments," an official said.
"CCTV systems on Central and Western railway stations will be integrated on priority," he added, stating this was part of the collaborative framework.
A source said in the next stage, the state could cover the peripheries of large housing societies and road-facing cameras of private establishments through last-mile connectivity. "The system is scalable…it will not affect performance," he added.
However, DCP Ashok Dudhe, who is the spokesperson for the Mumbai police, said the project was progressing and all private parties were ready for connectivity.
Though the Mumbai CCTV project initially planned to establish 6,020 remotely-controlled, high-definition quality IP cameras, the number of cameras was reduced to 4,717 at 1,510 spots due to the decision to increase the number of poles at the sites.
Pradhan committee had pointed out that unlike their counterparts in cities like New York, the Mumbai police had no ready access to CCTV cameras in private premises like hotels.
- The plan to install an average of 14 cameras per sq km was bid out July 2011 onwards but faced repeated hurdles.
- The successful bidder was blacklisted in January 2012 and, in September 2012, the bidder defaulted on bank guarantees. An open tender got no response in November 2013 and, in July 2014, one of the two bids received was disqualified in technical evaluation.
- An L&T-led consortium consisting of MTNL and CMS Computers Ltd, was awarded the contract.
- The project includes two control rooms at the police commissioner office and traffic police headquarters, a disaster recovery room at Kalina, two data centres, 10 mobile vans with mounted cameras to help control rooms monitor the ground-level situation through live feeds and a picture intelligence unit and facial recognition software.
- GPS-based tracking of 1,000 police vehicles, integration of the city's spatial information with a GIS system for a shorter response time and a vehicle tracking system with automatic number plate recognition are also included.
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