Chandigarh's surveillance network has a significant problem on its hands. Official figures show that 187 of the city's 2,130 CCTV cameras are not working, even as police push to nearly double the camera network to tackle road safety issues.
The data, accessed by The Tribune, shows these defunct cameras are spread across nearly every category of the city's surveillance grid — from traffic enforcement units to school, hospital and waterworks installations.
Waterworks cameras hit hardest in Chandigarh surveillance grid
The waterworks category has the highest number of inactive cameras. Of 197 units in this category, 58 are not working — that is nearly 30 per cent of the total. This is the worst failure rate across the entire surveillance grid.
The Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS), which serves as the backbone of the city's challan and crash-detection network, also has significant issues. Of its 1,018 cameras, 64 are out of order.
City surveillance and school cameras also affected
Beyond the traffic and waterworks systems, other parts of the network are also struggling. Of 341 city surveillance cameras, 17 are non-functional. Schools account for 13 inactive cameras, though the total number of school cameras was not specified in the available data.
The breakdown shows that the problem is not isolated to one part of the system. Hospitals and other installations across the city are also affected, according to the data accessed by The Tribune.
Why this matters as Chandigarh expands its camera network
The timing of this disclosure is notable. Police are currently pushing to nearly double the city's camera network to address road safety concerns. Adding more cameras while a significant number of existing ones remain out of service raises questions about maintenance priorities.
If the city cannot keep its current 2,130 cameras operational, expanding the network could simply multiply the problem. A camera that does not work provides no safety benefit — it only creates a false sense of security.
Our Take: Fix what exists before adding more
To put it plainly, this data exposes a maintenance gap that Chandigarh cannot afford to ignore. Nearly one in ten cameras across the grid is not functioning, and the waterworks category is losing almost a third of its coverage.
The push to double the camera network is understandable — road safety is a serious concern. But expanding a system that already has a 9 per cent failure rate is like adding lanes to a highway with broken traffic lights. The priority should be restoring the 187 defunct cameras to working order first, then scaling up.
For residents, this means some areas may not have the surveillance coverage they assume exists. For the police, it means blind spots in the very network meant to catch traffic violators and detect crashes. The city needs a clear maintenance plan — not just an expansion plan — before it commits to nearly doubling its camera count.