Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated Punjab Safe Cities Project, a unique project of this mega scale in Pakistan and the biggest one in Asia at Qurban Lines on 9th Muharram (11th October 2016). The project aims at providing a crime-free and peaceful atmosphere to the citizens using smart technology and modern surveillance methods.
In the first phase only the route of processions of Ashura was covered to provide safe corridor to the Shi’a Muslims on 9th & 10th Muharram.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said the first phase of Safe City Project has completed in a record period of time for providing a crime-free and peaceful atmosphere to the citizens. Punjab government is working on Safe City Project with the collaboration of a leading Chinese company Huawei Technologies and it is the first project of its kind in Pakistan. This project of the Punjab government is four times bigger than the Islamabad project with 8000 cameras covering the whole city.
It is worth noting that Chinese compnay Huawei made the lowest bid of 16 billion rupees for Safe Cities Project of Punjab, however, this amount was further brought down to 12 billion rupees by negotiating with the Huawei management; saving a huge sum of four billion rupees of public money. Contrary to this, Islamabad Safe City Project is 1/4th of this project but its agreement was signed for Rs.12 billion six years ago. Those leveling allegations of corruption should also remember transparency in this project and the saving of four billion rupees of national resources which is unprecedented.
Through this project all kind of emergency response, including Rescue 1122, Ambulance and fire brigade, 15 calls could be directly managed, besides having the surveillance of terrorism and other criminal activities in the city. The communication officer on duty will be authorized to handle all these emergencies received directly to this center and can also dispatched orders to the nearest unit, respectively.
The video-wall deployed at Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control and Communication Center (PPIC3), Lahore is the world’s 2nd largest video-wall and Asia’s largest.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced that Safe City Project would also be started in six other cities of Punjab, including Multan, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Sargodha and would be completed by the end of 2017. He said that Chinese Consul General Yu Boren had extended commendable cooperation and the Chinese company Huawei had completed the first phase of the project in a professional manner.
Chinese Consul General Yu Boren said that due to personal efforts taken by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the project had been implemented expeditiously and it was a milestone in Pak-China friendship.
Chief Executive Officer Huawei Company said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was extending full support for this project due to which its first phase had been completed. Inspector General Police Mushtaq Sukhera said that demands of security had changed with the passage of time; therefore, Punjab police is being equipped with modern technology.
