NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that his government accorded top priority to women’s safety and had approved a tender to install 1.50 lakh CCTV cameras across the city, and the process of installation would start on June 8. A poll promise of the Aam Aadmi Party, this project had become stuck in the tussle between the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi government as they were not on the same page over control of these cameras.
“A survey for 70,000 CCTVs has been completed and the installation process will start from June 8. A proposal for another 1.40 lakh cameras in under consideration will be passed this month. A total of 2.80 lakh CCTV cameras will be installed,” Kejriwal said.As many as 1.50 lakh CCTV cameras will be installed in government-run schools by November, Kejriwal added.
Work is also on for installing cameras in DTC buses, he said. The Delhi government had blamed the Centre for stalling the project and holding up its files several times, an issue which cropped up during the Lok Sabha election campaign as well.
The project to install the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras got the Delhi government’s approval in August last year, three years after the Cabinet gave an in-principle approval to the project. In September last year, the project got administrative approval and expenditure sanctions for a cost of Rs. 571.40 crore.
The Aam Aadmi Party government had planned to install approximately 2,000 cameras per Assembly constituency in all the seven Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi.