BEL faces penalty of Rs.16 crore for slow installation of CCTV cameras in Delhi

The Public Works Department (PWD) has already issued a show-cause notice to the agency for its tardy pace of work.

The Delhi government has proposed imposing a penalty of Rs. 16 crore on the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for its slow pace in installing 1.4 lakh CCTV cameras across the city, the government said in a statement on Friday.

BEL, a Navratna company of the government of India, was given the contract for the project in November last year and had to complete the installation of the CCTV cameras within nine months. (HT PHOTOS)

The Public Works Department (PWD) has already issued a show-cause notice to the agency for its tardy pace of work. BEL, a Navratna company of the government of India, was given the contract for the project in November last year and had to complete the installation of the CCTV cameras within nine months.

The move comes after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed his strong displeasure over the slow pace of work.

“The BEL is legally obliged to install 1.4 lakh CCTV cameras by November 22, 2019, all over Delhi. However, of 1.4 lakh, it has installed only around 16,000 to date, which is just 11% of the total cameras to be installed,” the Delhi government said in its statement.

According to the project agreement, in case the company fails to complete the entire installation work within nine months, it is liable to pay a 10% penalty.

The PWD has, on numerous occasions, written to the company to speed up the project.

PWD minister Satyendar Jain and chief secretary Vijay Kumar Dev had also summoned senior officials of the company to convey the government’s dissatisfaction over the “unjustified delay” in the cameras’ installation.

At present, around 400 CCTV cameras are being installed every day. According to a statement, BEL officials, in a meeting, had informed the government that all efforts would be made to improve this number to 1,500 CCTV cameras daily.

The installation of CCTV cameras is one of the top priorities of the Delhi government. Kejriwal himself is monitoring the project on a daily basis to ensure the timely completion of the project officials said.

Earlier in July this year, the Delhi cabinet had approved the installation of 1.4 lakh more CCTV cameras, taking the total number of these cameras to 2.8 lakh.