NEW DELHI: The BJP-led Delhi government is set to initiate a comprehensive technical audit of the city’s vast CCTV surveillance network following growing concerns over faulty implementation and equipment failures in a flagship project launched by the previous administration, government sources said.
According to the sources, over 32,000 of the 2.64 lakh CCTV cameras installed across Delhi’s 70 assembly constituencies have been found to be non-functional. Additionally, more than 15,000 cameras that were part of the sanctioned count were never installed in the first place.
Discrepancies have also been flagged in several constituencies where the actual number of installed cameras falls significantly short of the approved allocation, they added. In light of these findings, the Rekha Gupta-led government has decided to conduct a full-scale technical audit of the project. The audit is expected to cover installation records, equipment functionality, vendor compliance, and data storage mechanisms, with the aim of identifying lapses.
“This is a matter of public safety and taxpayers’ money,” a source said. “We are not just looking to fix what’s broken but also to understand how such a large-scale lapse was allowed to happen. The audit will help us move forward with transparency and ensure the system works as intended,” he added.