Eagle-eye on illegal constructions

With illegal constructions mushrooming in the city, the civic agency has decided to install Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV) atop several tall buildings in the city, reports Neelam Pandey.

Soon the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will have an eye from the sky.

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With illegal constructions mushrooming in the city, the civic agency has decided to install Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV) atop several tall buildings in the city.

To start with, one camera would be installed on top of the Civic Centre — the tallest building in the city — to have a bird’s eye view of all ongoing constructions nearby.

These cameras, each costing close to Rs 15 lakh, will be equipped with latest technologies with features like night vigil.

“We will install rotating cameras so that we get a view of the building from all sides. The first camera will be installed at Civic Centre in January and, in phases, cameras will be put up on other tall buildings in the city,” said MCD commissioner KS Mehra.

These cameras, operating under the 3-D Geographical Information System (GIS), will be connected to a monitoring room set up at every zonal office of the civic body.

At present one such monitoring room is in the city zone that monitors all images related to construction activities going on in the Walled city.

If any illegal construction were detected, the monitoring room would refer the case to the field staff that will inspect the particular building and take photographs to be sent to the building department for an action.

“We have decided to place a camera on top the Civic Centre because it's the tallest building and so will be able to give a better view,” said deputy commissioner of city zone, Vijay Singh.

Under the 3-D GIS System, cameras with a range of five km were installed near Jama Masjid, Kasturba Gandhi Hospital and Asaf Ali Road earlier.