Cairo: Around 470 surveillance cameras installed at an iconic Kuwaiti bridge have been out of service for over 10 months, a Kuwaiti newspaper has reported.
The cameras at the Sheikh Jaber Causeway have been out of work due to a breakdown in a transformation substation that supplies power to the devices, Al Rai added, quoting what it described as well-informed security sources.
The Sheikh Jaber Causeway is the world’s fourth longest bridge and connects Kuwait City to Subiya.
“The Interior Ministry notified the Electricity Ministry about the dysfunction of the cameras. The latter in turn noted that responsibility for this lies with the General Authority of Roads,
which has yet to fix the problem due to non-availability of budget,” the sources said.
The cost of fixing the breakdown is estimated at KD40,000.
A full report on the problem has been submitted to the competent agencies in the country to solve it. There was no immediate official comment on the newspaper’s report.
“The problem should be addressed at the quickest possible time to repair the security surveillance system that protects a vital installation such as the Jaber Causeway used by thousands of citizens and expatriates,” the sources said.
They cited the role of surveillance cameras at the bridge in halting some suicide attempts.
In recent months, Kuwaiti media has reported a series of suicide deaths and attempts in the country.
Forty-one suicide cases and 43 suicide attempts were registered last year in Kuwait, a country of around 4.6 million people mostly foreigners, according to official figures.
