Women safety: City gets 1,600 cameras with live relay to police control room

According to a Chennai Corporation official, fisheye cameras would be installed at 1,605 spots. The poles of the fisheye cameras would also have box cameras. “The project will be implemented at a cost of over Rs 59 crore using Nirbhaya Fund sanction by the central government under women safety initiative,” the official said. 

As per the civic body data, the most number of fisheye cameras has been planned for Anna Nagar, Teynampet and Adyar, the core city zones. The zones have been allocated 202, 205 and 200 cameras respectively. Other core city zones such as Tondiarpet (107), Royapuram (150), Thiru Vi Ka Nagar (111) and Kodambakkam (137) will have a higher number of cameras than the extended zones. 

The official added that the cameras would be installed in public areas where gatherings occur and secluded spots identified by the field officials along with the police. 

Meanwhile, the civic body has floated tenders inviting bidders to erect smart poles under the Nirbhaya Fund for the safety of women. Smart poles, along with cameras, emergency panic buttons and other accessories to connect the smart poles to the police control room, will come up at 1,709 spots. Earlier, the civic body had floated tenders to install smart poles at around 1,600 spots. 

It may be noted that the state and central governments have allocated Rs 425 crore to implement women safety initiatives under the project. Of the Rs 425 crore, the State government had provided 40 per cent of the fund whereas the central government had released 60 per cent fund.