Road safety and rising crime are major issues that city planners and government authorities all over the world are trying to bring down without being intrusive. One of India’s top metros, populous Kolkata is taking the CCTV route to monitor accidents as well as crime on the city’s roads. The plan, according to senior police officials, is to install CCTV cameras every 200-300 meters on major roads. Tenders have been invited for 500 CCTV cameras and 50 new drones. The cops will also have access to speed guns and cameras that can read number plates at night.
“Our plans in the future include setting up of CCTV cameras every 200-300 metres on the major thoroughfares. The idea is to ensure that every crime or accident on the roads is captured on CCTV,” said Joyeeta Bose, Deputy Commissioner of Police (wireless).
Kolkata already has 1,200 CCTVs. The police is seeking to double this number. CCTV footage has helped solve high-profile hit and run cases as well as a kidnapping-and-murder case last year, they say. The traffic police in the metro city thinks access to cameras that zoom in on to number plates will ease their job in nabbing offenders as well as help bring down accidents and crime.
According to an officer, “This system will not only capture the registration number of a vehicle but also dig out details of the owner from the database and find the exact place of offence with latitude and longitude coordinates.”
