Authorities hope Safe City Project for Peshawar to kick off soon

PESHAWAR: The authorities responsible for maintaining law and order are hopeful that work on the Safe City Project will start soon in the provincial capital.

The project has been delaying for almost a decade. A source said that some fruitful meetings were recently held with the officials concerned to give final touches to the project before kicking off the practical work on it. The project was proposed over a decade back but it could not be started due to wrangling between various government departments that wanted control of the project. After the completion of the project in Islamabad and Lahore, authorities in Punjab had announced the Safe City Projects for seven other cities in the province recently. A special Safe Cities Authority was also been set up in Punjab in 2015. However, the project could not be started in Peshawar despite facing hundreds of terrorist attacks. “A huge amount was allocated for the project in the budget of 2013-14 but it could not be kicked off. The project is meant to improve law and order in the district that was targeted the most in the last almost 15 years,” the source added.

The source said that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan recently chaired meetings in which experts from Punjab also participated and it was decided to accelerate work on the Safe City Project in Peshawar. It was also decided that the Safe City Project would be based on four major components including, integrated emergency response system, integrated surveillance system, intelligent traffic management system and electronic evidence managements system. “The e-ticking launched by the Peshawar traffic police recently will also be linked with the Safe City Project,” the source added.

The major part of the Safe City Project is the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at key points in the city to keep a check on the movement of suspicious and criminal elements. One of the plans was to install around 6000 cameras and around 800 points in parts of urban areas of Peshawar. An official said the CCTV cameras will also improve the public dealing of police at checkpoints and other places as they will be under a constant watch. The installation of the CCTVs will also help the police keep a check on the street crimes that have recorded an increase in the last couple of years.