CM orders officials to meet Safe City Project deadline

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has directed the officials to meet the deadline as envisaged in the Peshawar Safe City Project Plan.

He directed the Home Department and Planning & Development Department to actively coordinate and cooperate for the successful implementation of the plan, said a handout.

It is pertinent to mention here that the chief minister had directed to present a final plan for initiating work on the Safe City Project during the last meeting about the project. While chairing the meeting, the chief minister was informed that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Integrated Command, Control & Communication Centre would be established adjacent to Police Station East.

It will focus on monitoring of entry & exit points, public gathering spots, government buildings, educational institutions, hospitals, crime pockets, religious worship places, key infrastructure points, important road crossings, high-value places & traffic congestion points.

Chief Secretary Muhammad Saleem Khan, Additional Chief Secretary Shehzad Bangash, Chief Operating Officer Lahore Akbar Nasir, Principal Secretary to CM Shahab Ali Shah, IGP Muhammad Naeem Khan, Secretary Home, CCPO Peshawar and other officials attended the meeting.

As per the initial plan, the key public installations to be monitored include government offices, LEA offices, civil secretariat, courts, railway station, bus stations, airport, gridstations, telephone exchanges, VVIP security points, hotels, important educational institutions, shrines, public markets, processions and public security points.

A total of 940 sites have been identified in Peshawar where 3,500 cameras will be installed including 2,300 fixed cameras, 700 PTZ cameras and 500 Facial Recognition cameras. The chief minister was also informed that the preparation of PC-1, its approval from the relevant forum, pre-bidding conference with interested firms and finalizing and floating of pre-qualification documents will be finalized within the next six weeks.

After the initiation of physical works, the project is expected to be completed within the next two years. Mahmood Khan hoped the project would prove to be a milestone towards effective e-governance which would be extended to divisional headquarters after its completion in the provincial capital.

The project will be based on four major components, including Integrated Emergency Response System, Integrated Intelligent Counter Surveillance System, Intelligent Traffic Management System and Electronic Evidence Management System.

The chief minister stated that the project would help establish a centralized mechanism through which the government would monitor all happenings in Peshawar under one roof.

Under the Integrated Emergency Response System, the emergency call centre will be established for citizens which will be responsible for a prompt response on emergency calls & coordination with concerned quarters such as Rescue 1122, fire-brigade, police stations, district administration. Under the Integrated Intelligent Counter Surveillance System, IPNV cameras will be installed throughout the city including vehicular cameras for surveillance of the entire city and collection of evidence which, after completion of formalities, will be acceptable in courts.

The Intelligent Traffic Management System will help in real-time monitoring of traffic in the city through installed cameras which will monitor traffic violations, illegal vehicles and taking of prompt response including the issuance of e-challans.

Once implemented, the project will also help identify areas with the high crime rate and traffic violations which will help in the efficient deployment of law enforcing officials.