Thane: 112 CCTV cameras are inoperable due to lack of municipal funds

Out of the 1400 CCTV cameras installed across the city for the safety of Thane residents, 112 have been out of order for the past few months. It has come to light that the municipality does not have sufficient funds to replace the disabled cameras with new ones.

As an alternative, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has now started considering to install police scheme cameras in place of the switched-off cameras. The civic body officials said that they have directed the police personnel to implement on the same immediately.

For the security, the Municipal Corporation had installed 1,400 CCTV cameras in Thane, Kalwa and Mumbra. All the information captured by these cameras is collected in the control room at Hazuri. These cameras have helped the police in solving many crimes in the city.

It had previously come to light that these CCTV cameras installed for the safety of citizens were being shut down due to technical problems, falling tree branches, wind, and rain. These cameras were repaired by the municipality and then put back into operation.

These cameras were installed all over the city in the three years of 2016, 2017, and 2018. Many of these cameras have now started to malfunction. The municipality has already removed some non-operational cameras and replaced them with new cameras.

A fund of INR 25 to 30 lakhs is required to remove all the out of order cameras and install new ones in their place in Thane city. But the municipality does not have the funds for this work.

Meanwhile, the state government has approved the proposal to install more than 6000 state-of-the-art CCTV cameras in Thane, Bhiwandi, Ulhasnagar to Badlapur in the Thane Commissionerate area.

The work of installing the cameras has also started. Therefore, due to lack of funds, the municipality has brought forward the option of installing cameras under the police scheme in place of the out of order cameras and the municipality is informing the police accordingly.

The out of order CCTV cameras in Thane city are being repaired time to time. However, some cameras have become faulty.