A small town, about 600 kilometers east from Mumbai, Nanded, was witnessing a sudden rise in criminal activities in recent years. All this was putting a considerable strain on the security establishment. Therefore, reinforcing the need for building a consolidated security establishment had become the need of the hour.
At the same time, a holy destination for the Sikh community, the city witnesses a huge influx of religious tourists several times in a year. Therefore, manually managing and controlling traffic on all arterial roads, religious processions, also posed serious challenges to local policemen and concerned authorities, in the past put a considerable strain on the security establishment.
The growing security concerns were recognized early by the proactive establishment and thus, it was decided that a city surveillance project should be introduced in the city, to complement the police machinery. It was decided that the Nanded Waghala City Municipal Corporation (NWCMC) should be given the task of implementing the project and handing it over to the Nanded Police for continual use.
Without delay, the NWCMC appointed MIPL, one of India’s security consultancy organization from India, to assist in designing and supervising the project implementation. The project’s first phase was focused on monitoring all critical areas of the city, including major entry and exit points, busy junctions and tourists’ attraction spots. The idea was to convert the city surveillance project into a safe city project to help the local authorities improve the overall operational efficiency and reduce manual intervention.
With coverage area of nearly 65 square kilometers, 45 kilometers of optical fiber network was setup to allow easy scalability. A total of 104 high resolution, night vision, fixed and PTZ Axis cameras were installed at all strategic locations spread across the city.
Connected to a central video management system through the optical fiber network, each camera is loaded with intelligent video analytics to provide rule-based alerts to the control room. The entire schema designed by MIPL ensured that the Axis cameras were used to route the connectivity for the PA systems as well as panic switches – leading to huge savings in cost.
The surveillance solution deployed across the city has helped the law enforcement authorities to assist the on-field police in crime tracking, directly from the Superintendent of Police headquarters’ and has enabled better governance and civic administration. The solution helps to monitor strategic places such as the Sachkhand Gurudwara, traffic signals, busy streets and other places of religious importance which are potential criminal/terrorist targets.
The Nanded Safe City project uses high resolution night vision fixed and PTZ cameras to constantly monitor the traffic flow. Further, these cameras are connected to a central video management system located at the Nanded Police headquarters, where the operators monitor the system round-the-clock, zoom-in and closely observe suspicious objects and people real time, and, trigger alarms to local authorities whenever required.
The solution has not only had an impact in helping the local authorities solve traffic cases, but also helped to combat and resolve cases of violence in the city. On a real time basis, control room has identified cases of chain and purse snatching and provided leads to the on-field police. There was a case of pranksters and miscreants on bikes being detained during the festival of Holi.
Axis cameras deployed across the city help keep the crowds and city’s historic landmarks safe. Traffic and parking patterns have improved with the control room’s ability to make announcements through central PA (Panic Alarm) system, heavy vehicle’s movement across the city can be watched to assess fines on illegal transport/transporters and even the police on street are more vigilant since they too know that their movements and actions are watched.
“The Nanded Safe City project is one of the benchmark projects in urban security in India. It is a great example of discrete governance agencies collaborating effectively for common good. The technology used, including the video surveillance cameras, is of very good quality and is scalable. Nanded is proud to be one of the first cities in India to deploy a true safe city project and we are looking forward to expand the coverage of the project in the next few years.” said Sushil Khodwekar, IAS, Commissioner, Nanded Waghala City Municipal Corporation (NWCMC).
In the words of Paramjit Singh Dahiya, IPS, Superintendent of Police, Nanded, “The implementation has added immense value to the work of Police, both, in investigation and in traffic monitoring. The cameras are not only reliable, but also provide high-definition image quality making the surveillance easier and better. We’re already proposing to expand the system,” he said adding that it’s a service that everyone’s looking for when it comes to safety.
