Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu speaks to officials after inaugurating the office of the commissioner of police and Traffic Command and Control Centre at the police commissionerate in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.

Visakhapatnam: The Andhra Pradesh government is contemplating to install CCTV cameras in all the major cities and towns in the state for various purposes. The CCTV cameras are aimed at strengthening security, check crime and keep a tab on all entry and exit points in the city, covering over 1,300 km on the roads.

According to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, around 1,500 CCTV cameras are required to cover the entire city.

Inaugurating the much-awaited traffic command control centre at the newly constructed police commissioner’s office in Vizag on Saturday, Mr Naidu said every inch of the city will be mapped round-the-clock through surveillance cameras in the coming days. While the traffic police would be able to keep a tab on the violation of traffic rules, the video footage saved in the system would help the cops in detection of crimes, he added.

The traffic command control centre will have a video wall of 1250-inch LED monitors and will be integrated with 160 cameras, including 47 high-definition PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras, mounted on 47 traffic junctions in the city. The high-definition cameras have an effective range of about 500 mts and are fitted with wipers to handle rain.

Commissioner of Police Amit Garg said 160 more cameras will be installed at over 47 areas in the city in the second phase. The command control centre that operates round-the-clock will be able to store and record data for about 90 days, he added.

Mr Prakash of Stanpower, the Hyderabad-based company that installed the cameras and the command control centre in Vizag under the BOT basis, told the chief minister that at least Rs 50 crore would be required to bring the entire city under the surveillance blanket and expressed that they will examine the utility of fiber grid project in the city for installation of CCTV cameras at all places.

Mr Naidu spoke to the beach visitors and sanitation workers at the RK beach through the system, integrated to the cell phones, and also to senior officials with the help of a special app.

The CM asked city police chief Amit Garg, district collector N. Yuvaraj, GVMC commissioner Praveen Kumar and Vuda officials and also Mr Prakash of Stanpower to prepare a report to examine installation of cameras in Vizag. He also launched the official website of the city police www.vizagcitypolice.gov.in