An ambitious electronic surveillance plan for Mumbai proposed by the city police shortly after 26/11 has been indefinitely delayed with the Maharashtra Government rejecting an offer from the Government-run Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd and looking afresh for bids. On January 9 this year,as first reported by The Indian Express,the Mumbai Police,under then Commissioner Hasan Gafoor,proposed to the state Home Department a citywide 5,000-camera closed circuit television (CCTV) network,linked to monitors in the control room at police headquarters. Its objective: round-the-clock vigil at the airport,train and bus stations,malls,hotels,cinemas,even shoreline shantytowns like the fishermens colony where the Lashkar terrorists landed last year. The police proposal included a detailed offer from Power Grid according to which it agreed to instal 5,000 cameras at vulnerable and crowded public locations,lay new cables wherever required and transmit data to police headquarters every year for Rs 150 crore. The annual saving to the police was estimated at Rs 50 crore Reliance Communications charges Rs 1 crore every year for transmitting data from the existing 100 CCTV cameras utilised by Mumbais traffic police. For Power Grid,there was an attractive trade-off. Getting access to land for laying cables involves major capital expenditure in a city like Mumbai, said a company official. We asked for free Right of Way (or RoW,the privilege granted to utility companies to lay infrastructure on public land),and if authorities had agreed,we would have more than recovered the cost by expanding our optical fibre network and increasing our commercial customers. Giving such a privilege free of cost shouldnt have been a problem,claim company officials,since Power Grid is a public-sector corporation that counts the Intelligence Bureau and the Indian Army among its 52 customers. But nothing was heard of the Power Grid CCTV offer for six months until it was replaced by a fresh recommendation by the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC). After Gafoor was replaced by D Sivanandan as Commissioner,the IMC,an industry body,called for a blanket security camera project.involving a private agency that will carry out the installation,maintenance and upgradation of cameras. An eight-member committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Chandra Iyengar was set up to implement the IMC recommendation. Besides the police commissioner and two other officials,four IMC representatives are on the committee. Power Grid telecom could not push the offer,company officials said,as authorities indicated that free RoW would not be given,making the project financially unviable. The government also wanted to use wireless,and not cable,for data transmission. When asked about the CCTV project,Iyengar said: I dont know if theres a Power Grid proposal. All that I can tell you is that the government is following due process for this project. PricewaterhouseCoopers has been asked to collect fresh data,including the number of CCTV cameras that should be installed around the city. We are here to fight and win the battle against terrorism, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said at a 26/11 commemorative function at the IMC,and reiterated that the government was actively considering the industry chambers suggestion that CCTV cameras should be installed in Mumbai on the lines of London. IMC president Gul Kripalani said that a foreign security company,especially from Israel,could be asked to execute the project. Israel is high on the list where security is concerned,as our problems are similar, he added. According to Kripalani,once the government gives its okay,the IMC plans to raise Rs 100 crore for the CCTV project through a public appeal. Security is a concern for every single Mumbaikar,from Ratan Tata to a taxi driver, he said.
