| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Implementation of the Project:
The forum of Traffic Education Trust was used for the implementation of the project in public-private-people-partnership (4P) model. A technical committee comprising of 5- eminent citizens Mr. Kamlesh Yagnik (Former President Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce, Surat), Dr. Apurva Desai (Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science, VNSGU, Surat), Mr. Jeejan Joseph (Technical Consultant, Venus Jewels, Surat), Mr. Dipen Jagiwala (Consultant), Mr. Yogesh Jadhav (Consultant), with technical back ground was constituted for the finalization of technical specifications and overseeing the implementation of the project. The technical committee played the role of the consultant in the implementation of the project and no consultancy charges were incurred. Five sub-groups comprising of Police Officers and Members of Traffic Education Trust were constituted for holding a series of meeting with stakeholder and mobilization of funds. The sub-groups had mobilized the funds during meetings held with different stakeholders and citizen groups.
104-cameras were to be installed in 23-strategic locations and a Command & Control Center with video wall, video analytics and data center was to be set up at Police Bhavan as part of Phase-I. In phase-II till date 604 cameras are installed at 109 locations. Shri. Sanjay Srivastava, IPS, the then Jt. Commissioner of Police (Sector-II), Surat City was initially appointed as the Nodal Officer for the implementation of the project. The technical committee had finalized the technical specifications and tender was issued on 19.03.2012. A transparent procedure prescribed by the World Bank was adopted for awarding works under the private-public-partnership (PPP) model was followed. The bidders were to submit technical bid and commercial bid separately. A pre-bid meeting was held on 29.04.2012. The company offering best technology (T-1) available for lowest price (L-1) was selected for awarding the contract. M/s. Innovative Telecom & Software Private Limited, Surat which had tied up with M/s. Verint Systems Limited, Israel and M/s. Delta, U.S.A. was awarded contract for the installation of cameras and setting up of Command & Control Center on 28.08.2012. M/s. RK Infratel Limited, Surat was awarded the work related to networking of cameras. The companies had commenced their work from 30.08.2012 and had completed the same by 31.12.2012, in a record time of 4-months. The project was dedicated to the people of Surat City on 18.01.2013 by Shri Narendra Modi, Hon. Chief Minister of Gujarat.
Key Features of the Project: The project is designed for surveillance, crime prevention and detection, post incident forensic examination, traffic management and enforcement, for providing disaster management support and pollution control measures (Pollution Sensors)
Cameras: There are 104 IP cameras including 9 PTZ cameras (360◦ view) and 95 fixed cameras (Day & Night Vision) installed in 23 strategic locations with local power backup. These cameras are connected to the Command and Control Center through the dedicated 200 km long underground dark optical fiber network.
Command & Control Center: A state of the art, fully air conditioned hall with 280 ft. Video Wall with 9x2 LED Projection Cubes of 67 inches, with 1024x768 resolutions. The Video Wall has the capacity to view 256 cameras at a time. It has 16-workstations, Emergency War Room, Video Management & Incident Management System, camera tampering and health sensors. The data center is equipped with IBM Servers with a storage capacity of 210 TB for 30-days. The police wireless communication room and Dial-100 system has been integrated with the Command & Control Center.
Enforcement Automation Center: It has access to RTO database for issuing e-challans with photograph of the traffic offenders. Surat City Police has entered in to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dena Bank declaring its branches and ATMs in Surat City and neighbouring Districts as collection centers for the collection of fines from the traffic offenders. More than 90,000 e-challans have been issued and more than Rs.2 cr has been collected as fine in the last 1 year.
Safety and Security: The Data Centre is equipped with rodent repellent, fire alarms, water leak sensors, FM 200 fire suppression system and access control system. The Command & Control Center is erected on the first floor keeping floods into consideration with emergency exit and weather proof IP66 housing. It is also equipped with traceable camera tampering, redundant UPS, camera recoding export protection, redundant PAC, redundant UPS and anti-static false floor
Other Utilities: The video wall is 2D map integrated and IP cameras are integrated with the 2D map. The camera can be popped up by just a click on the map. The system enables installation of GPS in police control room (PCR) vans for vehicle tracking for coordinating police responses to Dial-100 calls. The system can also facilitate Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) for finding smart solutions to traffic problem in the city. The system can provide disaster management support in case of natural calamities like floods, earth quake, industrial accidents etc. The rescue and evacuation plan can be prepared using video feed. The software has the capabilities for post incident forensic examination, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), face recognition system, frame by frame playback of video, abandoned object identification, head counting, loitering identification, intrusion detection and pollution sensors.
It is a project promoted and funded by the citizens of Surat City and the process of expansion is underway. The work for the expansion of the project as part of Phase-2 has commenced for the installation of 1525 cameras in 250 locations. The project will have 5000 cameras in 1073 locations at the end of Phase-5 virtually bringing the entire city under CCTV surveillance.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Corporates & Business Houses:
They had joined hands with the police leadership and had participated at various stages of planning, design & implementation. They had mobilized finances and had extended co-operation by providing human and material resources for the project.
Citizen Groups:
A number of charitable organizations, professionals and Non Governmental Organizations created goodwill in favour of police and helped in popularizing CCTV camera based surveillance and traffic management system.
Housing Co-operative Societies: They had appreciated the positives of CCTV camera based surveillance and traffic management system. The residents of various localities and citizen groups had come forward for meeting the expenses of network expansion for securing their localities.
Traffic Education Trust:
It had played key role in planning, mobilization of funds and implementation of the project. The members had provided technical & institutional support by way of documentation, account keeping, auditing etc. for the implementation of the project. I-follow movement had helped mobilizing people and galvanizing public opinion in favour of camera based surveillance and traffic management system.
Police Leadership:
Shri. Rakesh Asthaana, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Surat City had conceived the idea of Safe City Project and had carried the experience of implementing the same in a small scale in Vadodara City during his previous tenure as Commissioner of Police, Vadodara City. He had sold the idea to the members of M/s. Traffic Education Trust and had played the leadership role in planning, mobilization of funds, securing approval from Government of Gujarat and implementation of the project in the short period of 1-year. He had led the team with a great amount of commitment in translating the idea in to action.
Shri. Sanjay Srivastava, IPS, Joint Commissioner of Police (Sector-II), Surat City:
He was the Nodal Officer for the implementation of the Safe City Surat Project. A B.Tech. from NIT, Suratkal, he used his technical background in finalization of technical specifications, preparation of tender documents and processing of technical bids.
Shri. B.S.Jebliya, IPS, Addl. Commissioner of Police(Sector-I), Surat City:
He had taken over as Nodal Officer for the implementation of the Safe City Surat Project from 07.04.2012 and had overseen the implementation of the project by M/s. Innovative Telecom & Software Pvt. Ltd., Surat. He had actively participated in the identification of strategic locations for the installation of cameras and had worked out the network expansion plan for Phase-2.
Shri. Narasimha N. Komar, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime & Traffic), Surat City:
He had joined the team on 07.09.2012 and played an important role in starting Enforcement Automation Center for the issue of e-challans against traffic offenders. He had also coordinated with the technical committee in drafting standard operating procedures, designing curriculum and imparting training to the personnel and institutionalizing the systems and procedures.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Transparency and stakeholder participation:
•The contract was awarded through a transparent tendering process in which as many as 12-biders participated. The procedure prescribed by the World Bank was adopted for awarding works under the PPP model was followed. The company offering best technology (T-1) available for lowest price (L-1) was selected for awarding the contract.
•The entire project was implemented in public-private-people-partnership (4P) model. It is a project driven by the public and the city police only provided leadership for the implementation of the project.
•The project was implemented with public funding and no expenditure was incurred by the Government of Gujarat. The corporates, business houses and citizens of the City actively participated at various stages of design and implementation
•The people were kept informed about the progress made in the project through M/s. Traffic Education Trust, Surat by holding periodic meetings. They were also appraised about the developments by facilitating site visits to get firsthand information about the quality of the work and material used.
•M/s. Innovative Telecom & Software Pvt. Ltd., Surat, which had executed the project being local corporate had made available best technology and material for the lowest possible price.
•Similarly, M/s. RK Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., Surat had laid 200 km long optical fiber network connecting the cameras with the Command & Control Center has offered to maintain the network for a period of 1-year from the date of implementation free of charge.
Funds for the project were generated as a donation from various organisations and individuals.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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•The CCTV camera network facilitate efficient surveillance of entry-exit points, public areas, vital installation and important traffic junctions.
•9-cases of hit and run, vehicle theft, robbery, of auto rickshaw commuters etc. have been detected based on the video footages. They also serve as excellent piece of evidence in the court of law.
•Enforcement Automation Center has been established and e-challans along with photograph of the violating vehicle are being issued. e-challan system is a transparent, people friendly and non-intrusive traffic enforcement system which takes away police intervention on the street with the people violating traffic rules thereby minimizing the chances of corruption and abuse of power. More than 90,000 e-challans have been issued and Rs.2cr fine collected during the last 12-months.
•The management of public processions, monitoring of VVIP movements and management of traffic during peak hours has been made effective through camera based surveillance system.
•Dial-100 System (A toll free number to reach the Police Control Room) and Woman Helpline-1091(A toll free number for the women in distress to reach Police Control Room) have been integrated with the Command & Control Center.
•The movement and responses of Police Control Room Vans (PCR Vans) is being coordinated from Command & Control Center through streamlined wireless communication system. It has improved police response time thereby winning the public confidence.
•The presence of surveillance cameras in different locations and issuing of e-challan has improved public behavior on street and has created deterrence to the criminal activity.
•The initiative has given a big boost to the community policing initiative and has contributed significantly for improving police image.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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Monitoring and evaluation of the project is carried out in a monthly meeting of Traffic Education Trust, Surat (a registered public charitable trust). Trust consists of trustees from following :
1. Corporates & Business Houses:
They had joined hands with the police leadership and had participated at various stages of planning, design & implementation. They had mobilized finances and had extended co-operation by providing human and material resources for the project.
2. Citizen Groups:
A number of charitable organizations, professionals and Non Governmental Organizations created goodwill in favour of police and helped in popularizing CCTV camera based surveillance and traffic management system.
Housing Co-operative Societies: They had appreciated the positives of CCTV camera based surveillance and traffic management system. The residents of various localities and citizen groups had come forward for meeting the expenses of network expansion for securing their localities.
3. Police Leadership:
Shri. Rakesh Asthaana, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Surat City had conceived the idea of Safe City Project and had carried the experience of implementing the same in a small scale in Vadodara City during his previous tenure as Commissioner of Police, Vadodara City. He had sold the idea to the members of M/s. Traffic Education Trust and had played the leadership role in planning, mobilization of funds, securing approval from Government of Gujarat and implementation of the project in the short period of 1-year. He had led the team with a great amount of commitment in translating the idea in to action.
Trust is played a key role in planning, mobilization of funds and implementation of the project. Currently, the Trust is acting also as a monitoring and evaluaton agencies. The members had provided technical & institutional support by way of documentation, account keeping, auditing etc. for the implementation of the project. I-follow movement had helped mobilizing people and galvanizing public opinion in favour of camera based surveillance and traffic management system.
In a very short time, Impact Assessment of this project will be carried out by the Third Party agency. Center for Social Studies, Surat (a Central Government Recognised Autonomous Body)is approached for this objective study.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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This is the first project of its kind in India and no such precedence available it was challenging to ascertain appropriate technology.
The following are the obstacles of the Safe City Surat Project:
•To develop an organized network of cameras to maximize surveillance and visibility in strategic and crime prone areas to facilitate prevention, detection and investigation of incidents of crime.
•To reduce the opportunities for committing crime and terror attacks by employing access control systems, cameras and police personnel to denying access to potential targets and deter incidents of crime/terror attacks
•To develop post incident forensic examination tools for crime detection and investigation.
•To manage traffic at junctions by monitoring the volume of traffic and enforce traffic rules through non-intrusive methods.
•To manage and monitor the movement of VIPs /VVIPs and large public processions. Example: Ganesh Immersion Procession, Taziya Procession, visit of Chief Minister/Prime Minister.
•To coordinate the efforts of various agencies for rescue, relief and rehabilitation during natural calamities and disasters Example: Floods, Cyclones, and Industrial Accidents.
The following are the priorities of the Safe City Surat Project:
•To create a network of closed circuit television (CCTV) camera based surveillance and communication system that can serve as backbone for future expansion
•To identify strategic and crime prone areas in the city and install cameras in a phased manner
•To establish a Command & Control Center for monitoring, recording and analysis of video footages.
•To streamline traffic management and to strengthen the rigour of traffic enforcement by issuing e-challans and installing automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system.
•To install 2D map and incident management systems for dealing with incidents such as fire accidents, road accidents, robbery etc.
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