Valley
106 more CCTV cameras to be installed in Kathmandu
An additional 106 CCTV cameras will be installed across Kathmandu Valley by the end of this fiscal year to enhance monitoring and tracking of criminal activities, the Nepal Police has said. New cameras will be installed at various locations along the Balaju-Chabahil road.Samipa Khanal
An additional 106 CCTV cameras will be installed across Kathmandu Valley by the end of this fiscal year to enhance monitoring and tracking of criminal activities, the Nepal Police has said. New cameras will be installed at various locations along the Balaju-Chabahil road.
Currently, there are 301 such devices installed at various locations in the Valley, according to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s Office (MPCO). The cameras are fitted along the roads from Bhotahity-Budhanilkantha; Bhotahiti-Tripureshwor-Kalanki; Thapathali-Lagankhel; Thapathali-Baneshwor-Koteshwor-Suryabinayak; Tinkune-Gaushala-Chabahil-Bouddha; Durbarmarg-JayNepal-Naxal.
Eleven analogue CCTV cameras were installed for the first time in the Valley in 2007, followed by 48 cameras each in 2009 and 2010, said an engineer at the MPCO. Then 153 more cameras were added at the time of the Saarc Summit in 2014.
The MPCO data show at least 50 incidents, ranging from traffic rules violation to road traffic accidents, theft, robbery, among others, are captured on CCTV cameras daily. The installation of advanced cameras will significantly enhance the surveillance, police officials said.
The engineer said that they have to repair several CCTV cameras on a regular basis as the monitoring devices develop problems due to constant exposure to the elements, thefts of CCTV cables, monkeys on loose, among other reasons.
“We still lag behind in technology. The cameras currently on use do not have Video Management Software with monitoring alarms that could be useful to control, manage and record live videos and retrieve recordings from the archives” said DSP Naresh Man Shrestha, the chief of the CCTV monitoring department at the MCPO.
An alarm goes off at the control station the moment anything suspicious is detected on the CCTV system. Footages obtained from the sophisticated CCTV cameras would allow police to track down wrongdoers in real time or provide with a crucial piece of information in an investigation of a case.
“But such high-end monitoring systems are expensive and we cannot afford them with the current budget,” said Shrestha.
On Sunday morning, the MCPO confronted a similar situation as a grainy video footage prevented an official at the control station from ascertaining the registration number of a scooter that overtook the traffic from the left at Lainchaur.
The time lapse in identifying the vehicle allowed the scooter rider to escape. Explaining the incident, Shrestha said that it takes a while for them to zoom in the footage to ascertain the vehicle number. “That’s where an advanced system come into play,” he said.