A citywide video surveillance system with 250,000 cameras to ensure public security will be set up in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, in the next two years, covering certain public places, Guangzhou Daily quoted a Friday municipal social security conference as saying Saturday.

Some 160,000 additional cameras will be set up on roads and in communities, while the existing 90,000 cameras will be connected to a citywide surveillance system, according to the conference.

Newly built roads, buildings, communities, public areas with high crime rates and the public transportation system will be the places to equip with cameras and connected to the city's public security surveillance, the newspaper said.

The cameras to be set up this year will cover 60 percent of the targeted points, which accounts for 70 percent of the city's total public area. In 2007, the total 250,000 cameras are expected to cover all of the city.

Zhang Guifang, vice secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the CPC, said that the pressure caused by the police shortage would be eased to a large extent after the system is completed, and it will collect evidence of crimes as well.

Electricity poles in the railway station square have been recently equipped with new cameras. About 5.2 million yuan (US$626,506) has been invested in the system, which has 69 cameras in total, according to the newspaper.

(Shenzhen Daily March 13, 2006)