Unpaid BSNL bill crashes CCTV network

Close on the heels of the recent lowintensity serial bomb blasts in the city and with merely 20 days to go for the 12day Ganesh Chaturthi festival MiD DAY did a reality check in the area around Shrimant Dagadusheth Halwai Ganpati Mandal Trust and discovered that the 14CCTV surveillance cameras covering the area are not functioningu00a0 Disconnected A nonfunctional CCTV cam near Lal Mahal Palace at Shivaji Road It can be recalled that Intelligence Bureau reports indicated that the 25 km area surrounding the place of worship was a soft target for a possible terror threat during the Ganesh festival last year Following the inputs the trust and PMC had installed 14 CCTV cameras as a security measure In December last year the ATS arrested Qateel Siddiqui for alleged involvement in a failed bid to plant a bomb in the temple premises on February 13 2010 The control room at Vishrambaug police station wears a disused look as the equipment has been powered downu00a0u00a0PicsKrunal Gosavi Siddiqui who was transferred to Yerawada jail was killed in June this year Despite the events that have transpired no provision has been made to share the burden of covering the recurrent connectivity bills and as a result the CCTV cameras at this sensitive area continue to be nonfunctional While the 14 CCTV cameras installed at 10 prominent locations around the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Mandal Trust serve no purpose at the moment similarly the control room with a massive monitor mounted on the wall and other related equipment has been powered down as well Bharat Junnarkar president of Junnarkar Technology Pvt Ltd who installed the cameras and recording equipment at the control room said ldquoI received only Rs 10 lakh from the trust The remaining amount of Rs 10 lakh is yet to be paid from the mayorrsquos fund There should be some proper system of payment from the government departmentrdquo When questioned Mayor Vaishali Bankar refused to comment on the issue and indicated that the PMC has already agreed to pay for their share by providing the CCTV network for the entire city Earlier the mayor and other elected representatives had made it clear that they would not pay for the maintenance or bear any other charges for the CCTV camera network Makarand Ranade DCP Zone I who is in charge of the 14CCTV camera network system confirmed that the cameras were not functional due to no connectivity To substantiate his claim he produced a letter from BSNL and calculated dues totalling Rs 40 86533 as annual connectivity charges ldquoBSNL is charging exorbitant rates despite the fact that the police is doing this exercise for the safety and security of the cityrsquos residents BSNL should subsidies rates for a good social causerdquo Ranade said He added that his seniors have been communicating with the state home department and the PMC about the issue and over how consideration was not given to these recurring costs at the time of planning BSNL says A senior BSNL officer said on condition anonymity ldquoWe have already subsidised the connectivity rates for the Pune police which are otherwise 550 lakh for 2 MBPS speed BSNL had charged an annual cost of only Rs 175 lakh for each camera with the 2 MBPS capacity Connectivity charges for control rooms are also drastically reducedrdquo The source further stated that BSNL cannot charge less that the current rate though it sounds expensive to the city police ldquoInstallation of CCTV cameras and other equipment with 34 control rooms costs Rs 30 crore but that is a onetime cost Connectivity is a recurring cost and users have to payrdquo the source said u00a0 Ranadersquos maths approximate Costing of BSNL connectivity charges for 14CCTV cameras network Rs 4086533 Break up Rs 175000 per CCTV camera with 2 MBPS capacity Rs 2457000 for 14 CCTV cameras Rs 1180000 for 20 MBPS capacity control room Rs 449533 as 1236 VAT charged by BSNL Total cost Rs 4086533 Rs 340544 per camera connectivity charges from BSNL On that basismdashBSNL connectivity cost for a 1000CCTV camera network for city Rs 1750 crore Rs 401crore for 34 control rooms on 20 MBPS capacity Total estimated cost for a year Rs 2151 crore u00a0