KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the work done so far was a significant step toward establishing Karachi as a safer city through enhanced surveillance and response capabilities.
“I have got the work on the long-awaited Safe City Project in Karachi, Phase-I significantly accelerated,” he said and added that the project, aimed at enhancing public safety and security in the metropolis, has reached several key milestones. This emerged in a meeting held at CM House on Tuesday. It was attended by Minister Home Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar, Secretary to CM Raheem Shaikh and others.
The Sindh IGP briefed the CM on the project’s progress and informed him that 1,300 cameras will be installed at different locations. It was disclosed that all 300 pole site surveys and 18 Point of Presence (POP) site surveys have been completed. Under the civil work, Right-of-Way (RoW) approvals from all relevant stakeholders have been obtained and foundation excavation and digging have been completed at 200 pole sites. The CM was told that 50 poles have been installed so far, with ongoing work at the remaining sites. The CM was informed that the Control Room and Data Centre equipment, alongwith a Video Wall, have been installed at the Central Police Office (CPO), receiving live monitoring through 35 cameras at 7 locations.
As far as equipment is concerned, the CM was told that all shipments [of equipment] from Hikvision, Huawei, Vertiv, POP sites, and Optical Fiber Cables (OFC) have been received and safely stored. The CM was told that five Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) have been procured and branded. To a question, Shah was told that the allocation of 18 POP sites within police stations has been completed, with groundwork started following surveys and renovation estimates. The Safe City Authority’s headquarters at Shahrah-e-Faisal is being established for which the land has been developed and handed over its possession to the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC). To a question, the CM was told that so far 35 police cameras have been made operational under the project and the work on the installation of other cameras was in progress. The chief minister said that the work done so far was a significant step toward establishing Karachi as a safer city through enhanced surveillance and response capabilities.
