Alipore in south Kolkata,the residential hub of the citys upper crust of business and industry,has installed hi-tech gadgets at its homes and on the roads to monitor crime and for overall surveillance. The citizens forum of Alipore conceived the security system two years ago in view of several incidents of abduction of businessmen of the area. Under the Rs 5-crore project,a total of 116 special cameras 115 on roads and one in control room and other devices have been installed to detect intrusion in homes and security breach on roads. For instance,if there is any security breach at any residence,the special cameras and accompanying devices will send an SMS alert and the footage of the incident to the owner of the house and to the local police station. Monitors have been installed in the control room of the Alipore police station and in the borough IX office of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. In case of a traffic rule violation,an automated challan will be generated after capturing the footage of the offending vehicles,said a member of the forum. Pan-tilt-zoom cameras installed by the forum will supplement the CCTVs installed by the Kolkata Police in several locations in the city. These cameras can move a full circle if the operator needs it. Two big monitors and four small monitors have been installed in the control room of the Alipore police station. The big monitors can have 16 feeds at a time. The cameras have high-resolutions capable of capturing images at night,too. The system,called Smart Video Management System,has been conceived,developed,and executed by Reliance Security solutions. The cameras have got robust features and can sustain storms and other natural calamities. It has a analytic system in it. The video clips are password-protected to resist tampering. Clips from these cameras can be used as forensic evidence, said Tarun Jhunjhunwala,business head and state mentor,East,Reliance Jio. This system,first of its its kind in the state,is in use in the cities of the US. Police Commissioner Surajit Kar Purakayastha said : This is a modernised version of resistance group in villages. We have already got several significant clips from these cameras. State urban development minister Firhad Hakim said: Most high-profile cases of abduction have taken place in Alipore. We have been trying to get a strong security solution in place for the area. We want to install such hi-tech cameras in other areas of south Kolkata as well. The project was inaugurated by Hakim at Alipore Police Station today. The proposal for the project was submitted to the Kolkata Police in July 2011 by M K Jalan,president,Alipore Citizens Forum.
