With over 20 million devotees at the Kumbh Mela this year, the state
authorities faced a daunting task in managing them. This coupled with ensuring
that religious sentiments do not get hurt, the task becomes even more
challenging in nature. Fearing incidents like stampedes that can happen in such
huge gatherings, the state authorities felt the need to incorporate the latest
technologies as a helping hand for achieving security objectives. Techno- logies
that would help in crowd and traffic management, at the same time monitor all
related threats from anti-social elements, were sought to be deployed. To
overcome these challenges, it was decided to incorporate surveillance systems in
four cities where there is the maximum inflow of devotees.
Four critical locations, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Muni Ki Reti and Neelkanth were
chosen, and IP Surveillance Systems over a secure wireless network were
installed. The whole network spanned over 30 kms, over an undulating terrain.
During the site survey for the project, it was observed that the terrain was
highly irregular & due to its hilly nature, line of sight for establishing a
wireless network was not available between the designated surveillance points
and the command & control center. Also, frequent power cuts in the region posed
a setback for successful functioning of the system. To counter these issues,
repeater stations were installed at Mansa Devi hill & the height of the poles
were increased to obtain Line of Sight wireless connectivity. UPS were provided
at camera level & were mounted on weather proof casings to beat the power cuts.
Other Finalists - Green IT Projects |
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Company Scenario | |
Before Deployment | |
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What was deployed |
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56 IP Surveillance Cameras across 4 cities with Central Monitoring Command post at Haridwar, all connect through wireless network. |
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After Deployment | |
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People Involved | |
Project Head - Alok Sharma, IPS, DIG - Kumbh |
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Implementation Partner - HCL Security Ltd, 100% subsidiary of HCL Infosystems |
The project was scheduled to be completed in a matter of 45 days, and HCL
completed the project 5 days prior to the scheduled completion date. Once the
systems were installed, tested and handed over to the police, training sessions
were also conducted so that the entire security system & the project became
operational without hiccups. The centralized monitoring of the region spread
over 30 kms was done from the Command & Control Center established at Hardwar
and connected with wireless networks to other locations. This offered real time
remote monitoring which aided in informed decision making for crowd and traffic
control.
This surveillance system has provided complete information on crowd and
vehicular movement to State authorities. The traffic department authorities have
also benefited by these surveillance systems since they offer real time
information on vehicle movements, crowded zones & traffic jams, which allows
them to route traffic through alternate routes thus avoiding chaos & undue
delays in vehicle movement. This has resulted in controlled crowd movements
which avoided chaos & panic, thus being able to offer a peaceful religious
experience to all pilgrims.