Security Breakdown in Smart City: Over 60% of CCTV Cameras Down Across Ahmedabad Public Parks

A severe lack of departmental coordination within the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has left public safety in jeopardy across the city’s green spaces. Over 60 per cent of CCTV cameras installed in AMC-run public parks and gardens are currently out of order, turning vital surveillance equipment into useless fixtures and raising serious safety concerns for women, children, and senior citizens.

189 Out of 311 Parks Left Without Working Surveillance

Out of the 311 public gardens managed by the civic body across Ahmedabad, surveillance networks have completely collapsed in 189 locations.

The widespread outage is not restricted to neighbourhood municipal plots alone. High-profile urban projects—including Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model parks, Oxygen Parks, and waterfront garden developments—are operating with non-functional security cameras. Visitors using these spaces for daily walks and recreation are being left to rely on virtually non-existent security cover, while civic officials routinely shrug off responsibility by promising vague inquiries.

Inter-Departmental Rift: Officers Ignore Recreation Committee Directives

The security failure stems from an ongoing administrative stalemate between the AMC’s Garden Department and the e-Governance Department.

For the past six months, the Garden Department has repeatedly submitted written requests to the e-Governance wing to repair the broken cameras and bring the updated surveillance infrastructure online. However, these communications have yielded no action on the ground.

The administrative apathy persists despite repeated interventions from civic leaders. Both the current Chairman of the AMC Recreation Committee, Jitendra Khachariya, and former Chairman Jayesh Trivedi have consistently raised the issue with executive officers. Bureaucratic inertia and departmental friction have effectively stalled progress, leaving municipal parks unprotected.