Nagpur’s prized Smart City surveillance system is under threat — not from cyberattacks, but from careless digging. With civic and infrastructure works in full swing, unplanned excavation is repeatedly snapping underground optical fiber cables, crippling thousands of CCTV cameras crucial for citywide monitoring.
Over 3,686 cameras across 700 junctions are now at risk, many already offline — putting public safety and traffic control in jeopardy, especially during monsoon chaos.
Furious over this negligence, Municipal Commissioner Dr. Abhijeet Chaudhari has laid down the law: “Optical fiber is essential public infrastructure — treat it that way.” No agency is to dig without prior clearance from Nagpur Smart City.
At a high-level workshop on June 20, attended by officials from MSEDCL, BSNL, MahaMetro, MSRDC, NIT, and Zilla Parishad, Dr. Chaudhari demanded strict coordination. A new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) mandates cross-checking underground cable maps before any digging. A dedicated agency will now oversee rapid cable restoration if damage occurs.
Dr. Sheel Ghule from the e-Governance wing warned that ongoing outages are directly hampering real-time policing and civic surveillance.
The message is loud and clear: Uncoordinated digging won’t be tolerated. Nagpur’s Smart City tech is not optional — it’s a lifeline, and it’s time all departments started treating it like one.
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