Gurgaon CCTV project in limbo, VIP project gets nod in 4 days

When it comes to pleasing dignitaries, Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) seems to leave no stone unturned. The civic body has shortlisted companies in just four days for installation of CCTV cameras for the golden jubilee function on November 1.

The city, meanwhile, still awaits the CCTV cameras promised under a project that was announced in 2014.

The project is estimated to cost over Rs.31 lakh. The tender announcement was made on Monday and companies placed bids with an earnest deposit of Rs.63,000. On Thursday, companies were invited for a pre-bid meet and shortlisted. The bidding will now take place on Friday.

In comparison, it was in February, 2014, that the then MCG commissioner Praveen Kumar had submitted the CCTV camera project before a bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court in a case pertaining to traffic regulations. The bench had directed the MCG to complete the process within three months.

In July 2015, the MCG and the Gurgaon police proposed another CCTV project as part of which 61 CCTV cameras had to be installed across the city.

These included hi-tech pan-tilt-zoom cameras and automatic number plate reader cameras. However, the proposal failed to progress beyond conceptualisation and a query filed by a social activist under the Right To Information Act later revealed that the Gurgaon Police was unaware of the number of functional CCTV cameras in the city.

On June 28, in a meeting with Haryana PWD Minster Rao Narbir Singh, MCG assured that all vital locations will be under CCTV camera surveillance within six months.

MCG officials said they will install CCTV cameras at the Secretariat, Rajiv Chowk, Signature Tower and Iffco Chowk. The cameras will have the ability to rotate 360 degrees, have laser light sensitivity for clearer images of vehicular movement and night vision to assist traffic police in nabbing suspected offenders.

Nearly four months later, no progress has been made.

But it took only four days for MCG to start the procurement of over 60 CCTV cameras to be set up at Tau Devi Lal Stadium, the venue for the function.

“The programme of November 1 is a high priority event. Considering the important persons attending the event we are arranging security features fitting the nature of event,” MCG Commissioner TL Satyaprakash said.