Safe City: Surat shows the way in CCTV surveillance

SURAT, INDIA: When it comes to safety and security, Gujarat's Diamond City, Surat, has set a precedent to other cities in India.

Unlike Mumbai, Surat has been quick to respond to the growing needs of enhancing safety, security and traffic situations in the city under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, called Surat Safe City Project.

Surat Traffic Education Trust, a civic body headed by Surat city commissioner of police Rakesh Asthana, had initiated the idea of city surveillance mid-last year, and the project was ready for testing and execution by the end of December 2012.

After thorough testing and trials, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the project last week with the opening of a state-of-the-art 24×7 video surveillance and security command center at the Surat Police Commissioner's office.

The Surat Traffic Education Trust and Surat Traffic Police Department, in association with a local firm, Innovative Telecom & Softwares, and an Israeli company, Verint Systems, have been instrumental in executing the project's first phase in just four months.

According to Mihir Chahwala, Innovative Telecom & Softwares' director, 104 close circuit televisions (CCTVs) have been installed across major traffic junctions and locations in the city in the first phase.

"These CCTVs are connected through a dedicated optical fiber channel that provides 24x7 surveillance monitoring support to the police and traffic departments. Besides, the live surveillance video feed is made available on a 280 sq. ft video wall for monitoring purposes," Chahwala informed.

In terms of the technology solution, "Verint Systems' software and cameras have been used for this project and it offers various benefits based on smarter city concept," Chahwala added.

Chahwala's firm has executed the project implementation that includes setting up of a data centre at the Police Department office that runs on three high-end IBM servers with storage boxes with 250 TB capacity.

Further, Chahwala pointed out that the Surat Traffic Education Trust and Surat City Police Department plan to install some 5,000 CCTVs in the coming years.

(The writer is a freelance journalist with CyberMedia)