A businessman has installed a camera on the overhead walkway across the East Bank Highway in the vicinity of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, and also at Houston, East Bank Demerara, to help motorists plan ahead when having to traverse the busy East Bank Highway.
The cameras were installed by a private company, Pixels-Guyana Inc. Managing Director Leonard Gildarie yesterday told Stabroek News that the objective of the cameras is to help persons to do traffic planning.
Gildarie observed that over the years, the East Bank has been one of the main public roads constantly congested by traffic, and he thought it would be a good idea to install a camera somewhere in the area so that persons can monitor the traffic virtually, as well as their time. “…the East Bank is the most congested corridor in the entire country along with the West Bank…for a long time whether persons are in Georgetown, they want to know what is traffic like on the East Bank and sometimes we’re caught in it, so we’ve been thinking about it sometime or the other…”
“What people have been using them to do is to gauge the traffic and themselves…the whole idea is to plan yourself…now that we have an alternative road, people can make arrangements when there is a backup in traffic so that they can go elsewhere,” said Gildarie.
The Managing Director noted that the cameras can span between 280-300 degrees and have good night vision and a zoom feature. They are described as PTZ cameras (Pan-Tilt-Zoom.) He also assured that the cameras were not installed to track anyone down or help with any security operations.
“These cameras are not security cameras, we’re not tracking anybody, it’s just there streaming the traffic flow, it has internet so it’s just streaming all the time.”
The cameras are always connected to the internet and the service is free of cost. The public can access the live video through the Pixels-Guyana Inc. Facebook page where it will always be streaming. “It is live camera so it is always streaming, so what you [are] seeing is live,” the managing director explained.
Gildarie also said that if a disruption of electricity should occur, the cameras will be out but they will resume live streaming whenever the current is restored. He noted that since it is an experimental process, they will be working on solar-powered cameras in order to decrease streaming outage.
The cameras are just an introduction to the services his company plans to offer, and he has bigger plans intended to help Guyana function more efficiently in an increasingly technological world.
Gildarie says that permission has been granted by the authorities for the setting up of the cameras.
