PANJIM: The much-hyped installation of 450 CCTV cameras in Panjim, estimated to cost of Rs 180 crore, has been kept on hold by the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) after local MLA Atanasio Monserrate and City Mayor Uday Madkaikar suspected foul.
Speaking to the media persons at the launch of traffic signals, installed in the city, Madkaikar said that camera installation was never a priority and hence the same has been kept on hold.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
“The cameras, to be installed under Smart City Mission, are currently kept on hold. We don’t feel it viable to spend Rs 180 crore on cameras,” he said.
Madkaikar said during the upcoming meeting of IPSCDL, decision will be taken as where and how many cameras to be installed.
Both the MLA and Mayor had raised question over Rs 180 crore spending to install CCTV cameras. They had sought intervention of Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant in the matter, terming it as a scam.
Earlier, Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho urged the City Corporation to shift all the offices of the off-shore casinos to Santa Monica Jetty side and to ensure that their visitors’ vehicle parking is restricted to multi-stored parking facility at Patto.
“It is very important to decongest the traffic in the city. Vehicles of visitors visiting casinos are causing huge nuisance. This needs to be stopped,” he said.
The minister also appealed to casino operators to run hop-on hop-off bus service to ferry its visitors from parking lot to the casinos. Responding to it, Mayor informed that the proposal is already been finalised to shift the offices of off-shore casinos to Santa Monica Jetty.
