VISAKHAPATNAM, August 16, 2015
What if every street light had a surveillance cam?
Surveillance cams on street lights can giveyou a 24x7 picture of life in the street, says expert Suresh H. Shah
Energy expert Suresh Shah is all for it, and says it might cut the crime rate by half
In recent years, surveillance cameras have become an important tool for the police to solve crime in our cities. Now, it’s de rigueur for malls, apartment, office spaces and street corners to have CCTV cameras.
In recent weeks, surveillance cameras have helped the police trace four runaway children from Guntur and capture an underworld hitman in Mumbai.
So why not have surveillance cameras at multiple points all along our streets, on every street light in fact?
Energy expert Suresh Shah is all for it. In fact, he would fix a camera to every LED light his company supplies to municipalities. He says it might cut the crime rate by half.
His company, e-Smart Energy Solutions, of which he is the CEO, tried out an experiment in Mumbai’s Andheri suburb in which surveillance cameras were fixed to every LED light in the street. The results were very good: the crime rate in Andheri came down by half, he says.
So, why not in Visakhapatnam and other cities in Andhra Pradesh?
Mr. Shah told The Hindu on Saturday that Andheri experiment cut the crime rate by recording extortions, traffic offences, prostitution and rowdyism. With cameras fixed to all streetlights in the city, police would achieve end-to-end surveillance and draw from a huge database in solving crime.
“Though many may not like it, surveillance cams on streetlights can give you a 24x7 picture of life in the street,” he said.
Visakhapatnam for instance, has police cameras at a few important intersections such as Jagadamba and a few other. Plans are to install cams at 94 junctions.
Mr. Shah’s firm has supplied wireless cameras to the Election Commission for use in the voting booths. Streetlight cameras can be networked to a central monitoring station to enable real-time surveillance. As a pilot project, the Vizag police in association with jewellery shop owners installed cameras on the main road in One Town.
Efficiency
Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, a joint venture of PSUs, has engaged e-Smart Energy Solutions to report on failures and rectification measures for LED streetlights installed in Visakhapatnam by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation in the aftermath of the cyclone Hudhud. Welcoming the initiative by GVMC of installing nearly one lakh LED streetlights to achieve energy efficiency, Mr. Shah said his company’s PPP project in Bhubaneswar of supplying LED lights and monitoring them for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation was able to ensure an 85 per cent efficiency rate. Mr. Shah said the involvement of too many suppliers and price-centric decision-making has reduced efficiency levels in Visakhapatnam from 50 per cent to 40 per cent in the past six months. With several initiatives on the cards to make Vizag a smart city, energy efficienty ought to be a major civic concern, he says.
e-Smart Energy Solutions has a LED light production centre in Nasik producing 1,000 streetlights per day.