Tech to push security drive at CWG

If you thought the national capital already looked like a fortress, with the ubiquitous security men and close- circuit cameras, wait till October. Delhi, which will host the 19th Commonwealth Games (CWG), is getting ready for its biggest security bandobast.

Technology will play a crucial role. While all training and competition venues will be networked and connected to police control rooms, over 2,000 closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras will keep a check on the stadiums and 58 market places like Connaught Place, Nehru Place, Dilli Haat and Lajpat Nagar. CCTVs will also be mounted at 27 border checkposts, for which the government will spend around Rs 22 crore. Besides, the Delhi Police are buying the latest security gadgets and weapons and recruiting 10,000 additional personnel.

Over Rs 100 crore will be spent on X-ray scanners, door frame metal detectors, hand-held metal detectors and communication systems for the CWG venues. And, Rs 42 crore has been disbursed for developing a traffic and communications network in the National Capital Region and a model traffic system, while a sum of Rs 56 lakh will be spent on training the city police.

Experts said security would obviously be the prime concern in an event which will see participation from 53 countries. Besides, 2 million foreign tourists and 3.5 million local tourists are expected to arrive in Delhi at the time of the Games.

The government is estimated to have doubled the expenditure on the Games security from Rs 800 crore to over Rs 1,600 crore. “The government will fund the renovation and upgradation of the stadia, while the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CGOC) will manage the conduct and delivery of the Games. The initial plans for the stadia involved civil and electrical infrastructure only. But, now cabling for the Games Data Network, Security Data Network and the Broadcast Network is also being done. Security and surveillance systems are being installed with funding from the central government,” says Sindhushree Khullar, secretary, department of sports of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

“All training and competition venues will also be linked to the CWG headquarters,” added Khullar.

The CGOC has been given Rs 1,620 crore as a loan, while MTNL, which is the telecom partner, has a budget of Rs 150-180 crore. Government-owned Electronics Corporation of India Limited has been mandated to complete security work by March 31, 2010. It was given Rs 370 crore for this, in the Union Budget.

Experts said extensive studies have been done of similar security systems in other such sporting events. For example, during the Athens Olympics in 2004, law enforcers combined software with surveillance cameras which used speech-recognition software to decipher what you spoke and alert the authorities to terrorist behaviour patterns. The Greek government later expanded surveillance powers to screen mobile and fixed-line telephone calls during the Olympics. The security budget of Athens for the Olympics — both on-ground and tech-driven — touched almost $1.8 billion.

And for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China dispatched five groups to Athens to attempt something similar. The budget was almost $2 billion. China is estimated to have spent five years and an estimated $400 million (around Rs 1,600 crore) just on IT planning and technology. Security monitoring included not only the Olympic Park, but the entire city of Beijing.

Security arrangements for the 2012 Olympics in London are expected to include assessments of the risks of a disruption to the event. Besides outfitting local police with guns, in place of the nightsticks many now carry, and deploying scanners, cameras, and metal detectors at sports arenas, London may follow Athens’ example and send up a blimp (balloon filled with nonflammable helium and propelled by an engine) outfitted with hundreds of cameras to survey the city.

India, experts said, could take lessons from these examples.