After a seven-year delay, the Maharashtra home department is finally going to unveil closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in south Mumbai. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will inaugurate the cameras. In the first phase, 650 CCTV cameras were installed from Colaba to Worli to monitor the city for security reasons. A total of 6,000 CCTV cameras will be installed in the second and third phase.
“Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is going to unveil the CCTV cameras on November 30 at Gateway of India near the Taj Mahal Hotel. Six hundred and fifty cameras have been installed in the first phase,” said additional chief secretary K.P. Bakshi.
The total cost of the first phase was `85 crore and the entire project will cost Rs 953 crore. The Larsen & Toubro firm had won the contract of the project and it started work on it from February this year. The work for the next phase will begin from June 2016, and it will be completed in October 2016, Mr Bakshi said.
The project was announced after the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai in 2008. The Ram Pradhan Committee, which was appointed to recommend security measures to be taken in the city, had mentioned installation of CCTV cameras. But, the project had been caught up in red tape and took seven years for it to commence. The delay had attracted a lot of flak from the Opposition, who questioned the government’s willingness to implement the project. Initially, it was proposed that the cost of the project would be Rs 700 crore.
