The investment, which has a 60-day execution period, will increase the current video surveillance system from 17 cameras to a total of 55, focusing on the Baixa district of Coimbra, the municipality said in a press release sent to Lusa news agency.

The public tender comes after the former Minister of Internal Affairs announced, in February, the approval of the installation of 38 cameras (the automatic reading of license plates of six cameras, which are part of the system without this functionality, was not validated).

The Coimbra City Council announced the “long bureaucratic process” to expand the video surveillance system, which will focus on “the areas with the highest crime rates, according to statistical data from the Coimbra Metropolitan Command of the PSP”, focusing mainly on the city’s downtown area.

In addition to the Baixada, the system will also include cameras near the Pedro e Inês bridge, whose glass structure has been the target of vandalism in the past, and at points in Parque Verde, on the right bank.

In the Baixada, the new cameras will cover points such as the Arnado region, Terreiro da Erva, Rua da Sofia, Estação Nova, Avenida Fernão de Magalhães and several of the narrow streets of the so-called Baixinha.

Quoted in the press release, Mayor José Manuel Silva stressed that this will be “a fundamental step towards the security of the urban area of ​​Coimbra”.

The process took about two years, with approval from the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the beginning of this year, following an opinion from the National Data Protection Commission.

After approval by the Government, the expansion of the system also received a favorable opinion from the Central Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDRC), in an initiative that also involved the PSP.