CM Sindh Directed to Prepare Karachi Safe City Project Final PC-1

Karachi: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday formed a joint group of the Safe City Authorities and the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation to sort out all the issues and complications regarding the Karachi Safe City Project and prepare a final PC-1 of the project. Under the safe city project 10,000, high definition cameras would be installed. Some of the cameras would be static and others capable to be moved around. All the cameras would be controlled through central command and control centers along with three regional centers.

The NRTC chief while briefing the CM said, “There would be surveillance through over 2,000 sites with the ability to analyze facial recognition, crowd and traffic amassing, mapping and other features”. The main issue under discussion in the meeting remained the laying of the fiber optic cables for which the roads of the cities would be dug up in several places for which a lengthy process of the consent of the concerned provincial, and federal departments is required. So it was the utilization of the PTCL system or the possibility of any other system that remained the main point of discussion. The CM after listening to all concerned departments constituted a committee under the chief secretary to come up with a solution to the issue. The Federal Defence Production Secretary retired Lt Gen Humayun Aziz, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Sindh Safe City Project chief Maqsood Memon, and NRTC chief retired Brigadier Asim Ishfaq attended the meeting.

Earlier in March 2022 Chief Minister Murad Ali, Shah had approved an amount of Rs 30 billion for the implementation of the Karachi safe city project. Under the project, 10,000 CCTV cameras would be installed in the city in three phases starting in the next fiscal year. In the first phase, all the entry and exit points of the city and district South would be covered. At present 2,196 cameras are installed at 538 locations in the Karachi city, out of these 1,201 belonged to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, 198 to the IT dept, and 155 to the Sindh police.