It would take barely a second for the police to track a vehicle at the two major entry and exit points from Sector II — AL-BL Block and the new bridge over Kestopur Canal — if its licence plate number is fed into the system. Not just that, searches can also be made on the basis of a vehicle’s colour or make as well.
A total of 32 close-circuit TV cameras have been installed at key points across Sector II that are in need of monitoring. The inauguration of the control room took place at Bidhannagar East police station on Monday.
Police commissioner Gaurav Sharma was effusive about the capabilities of the surveillance system that would now be in place. “Our speed of detection will increase manifold due to technology. Of the cameras installed, some are PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom), which can be panned and tilted 360 degrees and also have zooming facility. Often finding the licence number of a car is vital but it becomes difficult because of the vehicle moving at high speed or the resolution of the camera feed not being high enough or the glare of the headlight on the number plate at night. That is why we have installed a specialised high-value camera. These ANPR cameras have automatic number plate reading capability,” he said.
The project has been funded by a grant of Rs 55 lakh from the MP Local Area Development Fund of Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar who inaugurated the control room.
Sharma pointed out that once CCTV is installed in an area often it becomes a crime-free zone. He cited a recent murder case under the Lake Town police station. “Local residents said two or three outsiders had been seen in the area. We showed them the footage and they immediately pointed them out. We could bring them to justice so fast. If the area did not have CCTV coverage, what took us one hour to solve would have taken us may be close to a month,” he said.
Minister Sujit Bose too mentioned a case in which a child went missing, leading to unrest in the area.
"Because the area was under CCTV coverage, we could call a section of the crowd, including the child's father, to the police station and show the feed to convince them that the child’s death was an accident,” Bose said.
Police commissioner Gaurav Sharma addresses the gathering at the inauguration of the control room. Sudeshna Banerjee
MP Ghosh Dastidar pointed out that a five-year annual maintenance contract had been entered into with Webel Technology, which had executed the project, to ensure proper functioning of every camera.
Sharma had more good news to share. “The state government has sanctioned Rs 5 crore. We plan to use this fund to install CCTVs in VIP Road, areas in the vicinity of the airport and in Sectors I and III of Salt Lake. We hope to see this entire area under electronic surveillance by Durga puja,” he said.
The new cameras will store the footage for a month.
“We can check how many times a vehicle has crossed the point and at what time over a day, a week or a month. We can even programme the software to monitor illegal parking or loitering if there are such requirements in future. Face recognition is also possible by zooming in on the video footage,” said Suvhankar Pal, the project head who executed the installation on behalf of Webel Technology.
The cameras have been placed at 8 no. Island bridge, Baisakhi island, AL & BL crossing, Karunamoyee island, JK Saha Bridge, EE Block Island and in front of CJ 267.