CHENNAI: ‘Smart poles’ with an alarm button, which will send a message to the nearest police station and emit a loud hoot to alert people around when activated by a woman or child in distress, will be set up at 1,600 locations across the city by the civic body by mid-2021. The ₹100 crore needed would come from the central government’s Nirbhaya fund.
The Greater Chennai Corporation has named such areas safe zone clusters and is identifying agencies to install and operate them for three years.
These will come up in all the zones in corporation limits. The civic body and the police have identified locations where women and children are vulnerable to crime, such as shopping districts and beaches, to set up the smart poles, an official said.
The smart poles would have surveillance cameras and cameras with fisheye lenses. Once the alarm button is pressed, the cameras will fish-eye lenses will start clicking pictures. “These photos will help the police to identify the wrong-doer by matching with their database as well,” said a senior civic official.
As soon as the alarm is raised, a police patrol vehicle would also be sent to the spot, the official added.
The surveillance cameras fitted to the smart pole would have 4G connectivity enabling the civic body and the police to get live feed whenever required.
Every pole would also have an illumination of 40watts, which would be different from other street lights to help quickly identify a safe zone cluster in an emergency.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/greater-chennai-corporation-to-install-smart-poles-for-womens-safety/articleshow/78903902.cms
