Panaji, July 26 

Goa's popular beaches will soon come under an elaborate CCTV network, tourism minister Dilip Parulekar said on Tuesday.

About Rs 3.61 crore were put aside for setting up the surveillance network to keep the beaches safe, Parulekar said in a written reply to the legislative assembly.

"GTDC (Goa Tourism Development Corporation) has also proposed for electronic surveillance on beaches and same is approved by the tourism ministry under Swadesh Darshan Scheme," he said.

"The electronic surveillance includes installation of CCTV cameras, wi-fi on beaches and monitoring stations," Parulekar replied to a question by opposition legislator Vijayi Sardesai.

Goa is one of the top beach tourism destinations in the country and attracts over four million tourists, including around half a million foreigners, every year.

In recent years, however, the safety of tourists, especially women on the beaches has been an issue of concern.

Parulekar said the tourism department had appointed a state government-run company, Goa Electronics Limited, as the nodal agency to execute the beach surveillance project.

"The department has appointed GEL, as nodal agency to execute the project, wherein the expression of interest and request for proposal was published," Parulekar said, adding that popular beaches like Baga, Calangute, Candolim, Vagator and Anjuna will be covered with CCTVs first.

"The control room will be set up in the tourism office and local police station to monitor and record the activities by installing pan tilt zoom speed dome camera, fixed-box cameras and conveying important messages by text or video to the tourist over variable message displays from control room," the minister said.