PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has signed an agreement to implement the Safe Cities Project.
The agreement was signed between the KP police and the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC). A signing ceremony was held on Tuesday at the Chief Minister’s House, where Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur attended as the chief guest.
During a briefing, officials said the flagship project aims to transform the provincial capital Peshawar, all divisional headquarters, and other sensitive districts into “Safe Cities.”
In the first phase, the project will be implemented in Peshawar at a cost of Rs2.2 billion and is expected to be completed within six months. This phase will involve the installation of 710 high-resolution surveillance cameras at 125 strategic locations across the city.
The second phase will see an additional 600 sites equipped with surveillance infrastructure, to be completed over a year at a cost of Rs5 billion. A state-of-the-art Command and Control Center will also be established as part of the initiative. Subsequent phases will extend the project to Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, North Waziristan and Karak with an estimated cost of Rs6 billion and a completion timeline of one year for the southern districts.
Eventually, the Safe Cities Project will also be rolled out in Mardan, Kohat, Nowshera, Swat, and Abbottabad. To give the Safe Cities Network a legal foundation, the KP Safe Cities Authority Act will be enacted. Under this law, it will be mandatory for all commercial projects to integrate their surveillance systems with the Safe City network. The project will utilize Artificial Intelligence to establish a robust and automated monitoring and identification system.
Additional features of the Safe Cities Project include an emergency response system, e-challan (electronic ticketing), and digital forensic evidence capabilities. The initiative will also consolidate data from the police and all other relevant departments into a unified system.
