The Pune city police has reported that around 30-40 CCTV cameras installed by them all across the city become non-functional every day because of road and footpath digging and repair work. Ravindra Shisve, the joint police commissioner, said, “the control room does not receive live feeds from the CCTV cameras if their cables are disconnected during the digging or other works on the roads.”
He added, “every day, 30 to 40 cameras stop functioning because of the digging work on the roads or footpaths of the city.” as reported by the Times of India. With the help of 1,340 CCTV cameras installed by the state home department, the Pune city police conduct surveillance on different roads and junctions. The cables of the CCTV cameras are connected to the control room at the Pune police commissionerate via an underground channel.
As per police officials, these cameras helped in keeping an eye on the roads and detecting any criminal activity occurring in any area. They also helped the Pune city police’s traffic branch to catch road traffic rules’ violators, enabling them to issue online challans to the violators using CCTV grabs. Shisve said, “the disconnection also causes a problem in taking action against traffic rule violators.”
“The PMC takes permission from the police before carrying out any digging work. But, if any specific case of damage is reported to us, we can inform the contractor for urgent repairs” said VG Kulkarni, the head of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) road department. A police officer said that the work contractor, who is digging the road or footpath, is contacted by police officials in order to restore the connection of the CCTV cameras. Another senior police official added, “if the police are intimated about the exact location in advance, such disruptions can be averted.”
