Surat becomes first city in India with full real-time surveillance network

SURAT: Surat is the first city in the country to have a modern, real-time CCTV surveillance network. In the first phase, 104 CCTV cameras were installed at 23 locations together with a 280 square feet video wall, one of the largest in the country, at the city's police control room.

As Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi had in January 2013 launched the project conceptualized by police commissioner Rakesh Asthana.

The first phase had cost Rs 12 crore. While Surat Municipal Corporation invested Rs 2 crore, the remaining sum was raised through donations by city-based business groups.

Work on Phase II is under way and it will include installation of 550 cameras at 282 locations at a cost of Rs 21 crore. The state government will invest Rs 3 crore in this phase. In all, police plan to install 5,000 cameras across the city. The entire fund will be arranged with the help of donations.

The project began early in 2012 and was done in seven months. Police began trial runs by the yearend. In 2013, the Surat police gave a presentation on the project at a conference on urban security by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries in Delhi.

They were the only police force to do so. Surat was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister's award for excellence in public administration in the same year. Rakesh Asthana , said, "A team from Delhi was in Surat on May 20 and 21 to study the project."