National Thermal Power Corporation funds 1 crore for Closed-Circuit TV project in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has decided to contribute to the efforts by the State government to make Hyderabad a global and crime-free city. As part of it, the State-run NTPC on Friday entered into an MoU with Hyderabad police to provide financial assistance of Rs l crore for the community Closed-Circuit TV (CCTV) project here.

The State government has started the process for setting up a 24-storey Command Control Centre at Banjara Hills. The Centre will be connected with a city-wide
community surveillance system consisting of over a lakh of CCTV cameras

NTPC Director (HR) U P Pani said the board members were persuaded to contribute for the project He said the CCTV Camera installation project was one-of-its-kind to be taken up anywhere in India and they also contributed a little for setting up surveillance cameras near Secunderabad Railway Station in 2015.

Under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and community development Initiative, NTPC entered into an MoU with the office of Hyderabad Commissioner of Police for installation of CCTV cameras in Old City areas. The NTPC, which is the first PSU to join hands with Hyderabad Police for installation of CCTV cameras, would extend a financial assistance of Rs one crore for the installation at areas falling under Kamatipura Police Station limits.

The Telangana State government has started the process for setting up a 24-storey Command Control Centre at Banjara Hills. The command Control Centre would be connected with a city-wide community CCTV surveillance system consisting of over a lakh of CCTV cameras, Hyderabad Police Commissioner M Mahendar Reddy said.

"This will act as one-stop centre for handling all emergencies and crisis/disaster managements by all government departments. As part of this effort, Hyderabad Police started implementation of city-wide community CCTV surveillance system with the help of community support," he said.

The CCTV camera project is the biggest of its kind to be taken up anywhere in India. Several vital installations will be mapped round-the-clock through surveillance cameras. The closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras technology will act as a force multiplier and help in checking crime and violation of traffic rules, he said.

He further said the Telangana State government came forward to invest about Rs 1,200 crore in terms of transforming Hyderabad City Police into a citizen friendly, citizen-centric and technology-driven police organisation. "One of the elements of this entire project is to cover the city with 1 lakh CCTV cameras all networked and monitored at multiple levels.

All the cameras once established and networked will be driven with analytics and we do expect with 1 lakh cameras in the city, Hyderabad would become safe and secure from point of view of commoner, women, children," the Hyderabad Police chief added. The Old City consists of jurisdiction covered by about 30 police stations requiring a budget of about Rs 45 crore for coverage of the entire area under CCTV surveillance system, officials said.

Currently the police are setting up CCTV cameras at various locations in the city as part of the community CCTV project.