Delhi Most Surveilled City In World, Surpasses Chinese Cities With Highest Number Of CCTVs Per Sq Miles

The Delhi government said it has installed 2.75 lakh cameras while 1.4 lakh are in the process of being installed.

New Delhi has 1826.6 cameras per square mile as compared to London which has 1,138.5.

New Delhi: Delhi becomes of the most surveilled cities in the world, beating cities like London, Shangai & Singapore with 1826.6 cameras per square mile. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal retweeting the Forbes article on the subject said felt proud.

He also thanked the "officers and engineers who worked in mission mode and achieved it in such a short time." 

Feel proud to say that Delhi beats cities like Shanghai, NY n London with most CCTV cameras per sq mile

Delhi has 1826 cameras, London has 1138 cameras per sq mile

My compliments to our officers and engineers who worked in mission mode n achieved it in such a short time https://t.co/G8KpDuBjej

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 26, 2021

According to data collected by Comparitech, a firm of research in cyber security, New Delhi has 1826.6 cameras per square mile as compared to London which has 1,138.5 cameras, the data was published by Forbes India. Meanwhile, Chennai is at the third spot with 609.9 cameras whereas Mumbai is at the 18th spot with 157.4 cameras.

The Comparitech article from May did say that the number of Closed-circuit televisions or CCTVs hardly has any correlation with the crime rate prevention. The focus of the study was focused "primarily on public CCTV—cameras used by government entities such as law enforcement."

The AAP government says had ensured that a maximum number of cameras were installed to boost women’s safety.

The Comparitech study estimated the number of CCTV cameras in Delhi at a little over 5.5 lakh for an area of 302 square miles, this mean it has excluded the farmlands, which has a total area of 573 square miles. 

According to a TOI report, the Delhi government said it has installed 2.75 lakh cameras while 1.4 lakh are in the process of being installed. The rest of the cameras have been installed by Delhi Police, NDMC, private agencies and citizens. 

“No other Indian city is even close to Delhi, which has three times the CCTVs than Chennai and 11 times that of Mumbai per square mile. Despite continuous roadblocks by the central government, the Kejriwal government did not deter in enhancing women’s safety in Delhi and the CM with MLAs even sat on a dharna in 2018 at the LG House in order to pave the way for the CCTV project,” said the Delhi government in a statement reported TOI. 

Video surveillance is rising worldwide and depending on whom you ask it is to make society safer and efficient or strip away the right of privacy of its citizens. 

"Cameras are getting better and cheaper, while live video streams can be remotely accessed, stored on the internet, and passed around. The adoption of face recognition technology makes it possible for both public and private entities to instantly check the identity of anyone who passes by a CCTV camera," the study stated.