Sophisticated cameras will provide live feeds to regulate traffic and control law and order in the royal city
Sophisticated cameras will provide live feeds to regulate traffic and control law and order in the royal city
The government is bringing the whole of Mysore city under surveillance using sophisticated day-night cameras.
Situated at the control room of the Mysore police commissioner's office, the computer screens provide live feeds of the city's traffic. With a 1-km zoom and a 360-degree pan, these new cameras will be used to enforce traffic regulation and control law and order.
"Mysore is an important tourist destination," said N Lakshminarayana, who heads the project, and "the city has also been chosen as a model city."
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It also has a "private masking system" that allows certain places to be blurred. But the most important aspect is its night vision, says Lakshminarayan.
The system is being funded by the chief minister's Rs 100-crore grant for Mysore. Rs 2.42 crore is being spent on installing the cameras, says Dr N Ramesh, social activist and technical head, Mysore project.u00a0
"It is good to have surveillance around the city," says Murlidhar N, an IT professional with CISCO who is working on the project. "We had clashes earlier in a communally sensitive area. With these cameras, people will be aware that somebody is watching and chances of getting caught are high."
As of now, 20 cameras have been installed at all the entry and exit points of the city for Dasara. "We will cover 42 junctions in a month or two," says Dr Ramesh.