CM’s bastion Thane to get 6,000 CCTV cam network on the lines of Mumbai

Sources said that former Thane Police Commissioner Jaijeet Singh had sought installation of the camera network in Thane last year. When contacted, Singh said, “Provision of CCTV cameras is a welcome step in the right direction.”

Singh, currently DG Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), said, “As Commissioner, I pushed for parity of equipment and wherewithal for all units in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. For example, each Mumbai police station has about nine four-wheelers while Thane police station has two–three vehicles. The same goes for two-wheelers as well.”

Soon after the 26/11 terror attacks of 2008, Maharashtra government had taken steps to upgrade the existing security infrastructure. One decision was to equip Mumbai and other cities with a CCTV camera network for which a high power committee had been set up in 2011.

Thereupon, in 2016, a network of 5,000 CCTVs became operational at 1,500 locations in Mumbai. After that however, the project did not progress further in cities like Thane. A presentation by Thane police last year changed that, as a committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (home) Sujata Saunik approved the proposal to include Thane Police Commissionerate as part of the security upgrade.

The order mentions that the DGP office in October 2021 recommended 5,468 cameras at 1,745 locations in Thane Police Commissionerate. However, eventually 6,051 cameras at an estimated Rs 492 crore were approved to be set up earlier this week by the state home department based on the committee’s recommendation.

Population of areas under Thane city police, which has 35 police stations and includes Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Ulhasnagar among others, is 1.10 crore as per 2011 census. In comparison, Mumbai has a population of 1.24 crore and more than 94 police stations.