Learning their lesson from the recent kidnapping incident at India Gate, the Delhi Police have drawn up plans for a nearly six-fold increase in the number of CCTV cameras installed around the war memorial.
As of today, there are 40 cameras in and around the monument and the lawns. The latest proposal is to add 190 more cameras, taking their total to 230. While the technical specifications of new cameras are being worked out, the police said the whole system will have a combination of still cameras and those with pan-tilt-zoom function.
In addition, the police also plan to put four licence plate readers (LPRs) for better monitoring. These LPRs have automatic number plate recognition system which reads the registration number plates on vehicles passing by. These devices will be installed on the roads, lawns and even the fountain close to India Gate.
On Monday, at a meeting of senior police officers, the New Delhi district was told to prepare an assessment report of the number of cameras needed for complete surveillance of the India Gate area.
“We have prepared a list of new spots where we need cameras to avoid incidents such as this. But this is a tentative list. For exact figures and features, the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) will conduct a survey of its own,” said a senior police officer.
Three-year-old Jahnvi went missing from India Gate lawns last week. Even though she was subsequently reunited with her family, the sequence of events from the time she disappeared and when she was spotted remains a mystery.
At the core of this mystery is the lack of sufficient CCTV footage. While she is seen playing in one of the footages captured on that day, all the 40 cameras installed at India Gate could not provide the complete trail.
Since the existing cameras were installed around 2005, none of them have the night vision feature. The police suspect this could have prevented the cameras from capturing Jahnvi’s exit from the lawn. Another reason the cameras failed to capture the girl could be insufficient lighting in the lawns, said the officer.
