New Delhi, Aug 26 (Agency) Delhi has now surpassed cities like London, Shanghai, New York and Singapore to rank number one across the globe in terms of CCTVs installed per square mile, announced Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal quoting an analysis appeared in an international magazine. In the analysis of 150 cities across the world, Delhi has topped the list of cities with maximum CCTV coverage globally. The electronic surveillance network here installs 1,826 cameras per square mile, followed by London at 1,138, Chennai at 609, Shenzhen (China) at 520, Wuxi (China) at 472, Qingdao (China) at 415, Shanghai (China) at 408, Singapore at 387, Changsha (China) at 353 and Wuhan (China) 339 among the top 10 cities in the metric.
The analysis mentioned only 3 Indian cities feature in the top 20, while Delhi is at rank 1, Chennai is at rank 3, Mumbai is at rank 18 with 157 cameras per square mile. Expressing his delight over the achievement, Kejriwal wrote on Twitter: “I feel proud to say that Delhi beat cities like Shanghai, New York and London with most CCTV cameras per square mile across the world. At first, Delhi has 1826 cameras, while at second, London has 1138 cameras per square mile. My compliments to the Delhi Government’s officers and engineers who worked on the project like a mission and achieved the feat in such a short time.” Officials at the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Delhi Government informed that the process of acquiring and installing 2.75 lakh CCTVs in phase one of the project. A further 1.4 lakh CCTVs are in the process of installation at present, they added.
The city government said that the people of Delhi played an active role in the implementation of the CCTV project. “Delhi’s public spaces are the best monitored in India and is one of the few cities globally where the community plays an active role in controlling their security. The RWAs and market associations were involved in surveying the locations where the CCTVs should be put up, not just gated colonies but all localities of Delhi, including slums, were covered in the project,” a senior government official said. “Under the entire scheme, each RWA/Market Association has 30 to 40 cameras to cover their respective areas. Before CCTV deployment, General Body Meetings with representatives of PWD, Police, RWA/Market Association were conducted to decide the location of the CCTVs, with a form being submitted detailing the same,” he added.