The Sindh government has allocated Rs4 billion for the much-awaited Karachi Safe City Project’s first phase, marking a significant step forward in enhancing security measures in the city, as revealed by a senior official.
Led by Asif Aijaz Shaikh, the Director General of the Sindh Safe City Authority, the project is set to be completed within a span of two years. Shaikh has been appointed as the Drawing Disbursing Officer (DDO) overseeing the entire project.
Earlier, the Sindh Safe Cities Authority DG had sought approval and funding from the Sindh government for the establishment of the Sindh Safe Cities Project (Phase-I), Karachi. The administrative approval for the Annual Development Programme Scheme ‘Establishment of Sindh Safe Cities Project (Phase-I), Karachi’ was granted by the Planning and Development Department on January 8, 2024, amounting to Rs6.62 billion.
In the first phase, the project will focus on completing the Control Room Building, covering key areas such as the Red Zone, Sharea Faisal, and Airport Corridor. Additionally, the system will incorporate data comprising photographs of jail inmates. This phase is slated to include the deployment of twenty-three smart vehicles and a total of 6,000 cameras, including 1,300 facial recognition cameras. These cameras will be equipped to perform facial recognition, record vehicle number plates, and capture images with night vision capabilities. Adjacent to the Karachi Police Office, construction of the Command-and-Control Building is underway. The project, spanning two phases, will encompass 12,000 cameras along with the upgrading of 2,000 existing cameras.
Notably, the initiative comes after a directive from the Supreme Court in 2016, urging the Sindh government to establish a safe city system, particularly in Karachi. The formation of the ‘Sindh Safe City Authority’ took four years, culminating in 2020, with the project contract awarded to M/S National Radio and Telecom Corporation. The Safe City projects in Lahore and Islamabad had become operational in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
On May 11, 2024, Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice Aqeel Ahmad Abbasi, emphasized the urgent need to expedite the Safe City Project during a meeting of the Provincial Justice Committee. Stressing the project’s significance in bolstering surveillance capabilities, the chief justice issued directives to ensure the completion of the initial phase within a strict timeframe of two years, underscoring the paramount importance of safeguarding citizens.
