From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: Three years after the city was rattled by a devastating serial blasts alog with three other places in Assam, the state government has finally started the process of installing CCTV cameras in different important and strategic locations in Guwahati city to mount vigil against any such attempt by terrorists in future. The city was targeted for bomb blasts by insurgents on many occasions in the past besides the serial terror that rocked it on October 8, 2008.
The process of setting up of 291 two mega pixel CCTV cameras in 91 locations in the city has been started under the direct supervision of Inspector General of Police (Central and Western Range) G P Singh. The senior police officials said that all these CCTV cameras will be installed within three months in different phases. Assam government had earlier constituted a core panel for the purpose headed by the IGP. The SSP Guwahati city police and deputy commissioner of Kamrup (metro) district and director of Assam Electronics Development Corporation (AMTRON) are also members of the committee.
The administration has started the process of installing close circuit cameras near the state capital complex at Dispur in the city, busy Ganeshguri flyover point and Ulubari flyover point in the first phase.
The CCTV cameras are being installed as per recommendation of a security review committee headed by former DGP of state police D N Dutta. The committee which was constituted by the state government after the devastating serial blasts on October 30, 2008, in its report submitted to the government recommended for installation of CCTV cameras and setting up of a police commissionerate in the city to add more teeth to the police force.
The serial blasts of 2008 had left over 90 dead an over 400 injured in Assam. Three of the blasts were triggered in the heart f Guwahati city while two others at Kokrajhar, Barpeta Road and Bongaigaon. One of the blast occurred with devastating impact under Ganeshguri flyover near the state secretariat complex. The unprecedented serial blasts had left city police in jitters. The serial blasts were triggered by Natioanl Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) led by its leader Ranjan Daimary.
Guwahati was also target of terrorists in earlier occasions too. Bodo tribe militants had triggered blasts on two more two occasions in past at Guwahati Railway station and in busy Paltan Bazar area in the city.
The CCTV cameras that are being installed in this biggest city in the Northeast will be monitored from a special control room set up by the city police. Besides the security concerns, the CCTV cameras will also help city traffic police to tackle the traffic congestion that has become a bane of life in Guwahati of late due to steeply rising number of vehicles on those narrow roads.