Six years on, city surveillance project yet to see the light of day

Project envisaged control room for monitoring shopping malls and mosques

RAWALPINDI:

Work on the Rawalpindi city surveillance project could not be started even after six years of its announcement.

In 2017, the then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Punjab government announced to start work on the city surveillance project for Rawalpindi, however, the project could not see the light of day despite a lapse of six years.

Work on the city surveillance system, a very important project for Rawalpindi city and Cantonment, could not be started even after six years of the announcement.

Under the project costing Rs500 million, a modern command and control room was to be constructed near Rawalpindi Kutcheri which would be used for monitoring several locations in the city and cantonment including shopping malls, mosques, imambargahs, hotbeds of crime by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

Sources said that the previous government had allocated Rs50 million for the completion of the project which could not be released due to various reasons. No progress has been made on the project by the present government either despite law-enforcement agencies' call for expediting work on the crucial project.

Sources said that the government had included the monitoring system in the list of other mega projects of Rawalpindi including Ring Road, Daducha Dam, six parking plazas etc which could not be completed or started because of various reasons.

They said that the project will help maintain law and order and improve traffic flow on major thoroughfares of the city. It will help uplift police performance too and improve the law and order situation.

Sources said under the city surveillance system, police station house officers were to be provided with tablets that were to remain connected with internet WiFi throughout. The tablets would be linked with data of convicted criminals and terrorists and stolen vehicles.

The sources said the Dolphin Squad was supposed to be equipped with smartphones linked with the surveillance system.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2022.