Kochi to come under surveillance of more CCTV cameras

Kochi to get 300 CCTV cameras; Opposition opposes private agency's involvement.

The city will come under the surveillance of 300 CCTV cameras shortly with the Kochi Corporation Council approving the proposal for the camera units.

The Opposition councillors, however, opposed the proposal for permitting the private agency, which set up the camera units in Kozhikode Corporation, to implement the project in Kochi. They also said that the decision to allow the private agency to display 600 hoardings in the streetlamp posts set up by Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) for 10 years in lieu of the cost of the cameras and their operational and maintenance costs would cause financial loss to the civic body.

One of the councillors pointed out that a large number of local bodies in the State had installed cameras. One camera unit would cost ₹84,500, he said.

Replying to the debate, Mayor M. Anilkumar said the Kerala High Court had earlier issued an order for setting up camera surveillance to curb illegal dumping of waste in the city. The Corporation will hand over 150 cameras to the city police, and the rest will be installed in areas identified by the Health Standing Committee of the civic body. The company will be allowed to display advertisement boards in the lamp posts in eight divisions of the Corporation, which come under the project areas of the Smart City project, he said.

The council asked the Welfare Standing Committee to select eligible seven families that could be relocated to the recently completed housing project at Mundamveli. The authorities confirmed the allocation of apartments to 74 families, who were residing in P & T Colony on the banks of Perandoor canal, for whom the apartment complex was constructed. There were disputes and counter-claims for the seven remaining apartments.

The Opposition councillors suggested that the illegally constructed houses on the banks of the canal be demolished after relocating the families.