As a step towards protection against continuing terror attacks that shook the city two weeks ago, a total of $5.8 million is to be spent to set up a network of 500 surveillance cameras in Bangalore.

The top police official of the state said that there will be a central control room to monitor and analyse the video feed, writes Debopriya Nandy.

The project, which is believed to be the country's biggest surveillance project, is predicted to be in place by the end of this year, said R Srikumar, Karnataka's director general and inspector of police. On spotting supicious objects, the system would automatially generate alerts. It will also be able to detect when it captures the image of a face matching that of a crime suspect.

The malls and office complexes of the city are to set up their own video surveillance systems. Vidhana Soudha and the Karnataka High Court were recently fitted with CCTV. This system is also equipped with high-tech features for video analysis. X