Public safety: Nine new prisons to be constructed in the province

Urban Search and Rescue Unit created to deal with massive building collapses

LAHORE: The Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre will be constructed in Lahore at an estimated cost of Rs2.9 billion. This is the largest provision for an on-going scheme in the allocation for the Police Department in the financial year 2016-2017.

The total allocation for the Public Order and Safety Affairs is estimated at Rs145.5 billion – an increase of 15.45 per cent from last year’s allocation of Rs123 billion.

This year, the total allocation for the Police Department is Rs100.9 billion, Rs3.82 billion of which will be spent on development projects. The rest will be utilised under various heads including salary, POL and inventories.

The new projects include completion of 41 police stations with full funding and 30 police stations with partial funding for which Rs1.425 billion has been allocated. This is 43 per cent higher than the previous year’s allocation. Rs1.34 billion has been allocated for 20 schemes of the Counter Terrorism Department, which is 34 per cent higher than the previous year. Rs160 million has been set aside for Dolphin Police Lines Centres. Rs22 million has been allocated for capacity strengthening and project development and management of the Police Department.



Other projects include the establishment of an Automation of Traffic Violation Issuance System for the City Traffic Police Lahore; Safe Cities Projects at Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi, for which Rs5 million has been allocated.

The development budget for the Prisons Department is Rs2.069 billion. The rest of the allocation for the department, Rs7.994 billion, will be utilised under various heads.

Of the total development budget for prisons, Rs1.305 billion will be spent on constructing nine jails in the province. Rs10 million has been allocated for the establishment of the Punjab Prisons Staff Training College at Sahiwal.

The allocation for Rescue-1122 is Rs14.05 billion. The amount will be spent on improving the Emergency Services Academy in Lahore, a new rescue station at Maraka, Lahore, a new Rescue-1122 station on Bedian Road, and a new Rescue-122 station at Nazir Garden Opposite Journalists Colony, Wagha, Lahore.

Rs152 million has been allocated for the Urban Search and Rescue Unit at the divisional level. This is a new wing which has been established specifically to deal with massive building collapses.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2016.