Improving security: Construction of Dolphin Police Lines approved

Rs331 million to be spent on headquarters at Walton Road

LAHORE: The Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) on Thursday approved the construction of the Dolphin Police Lines at Walton Road at an estimated cost of Rs331 million.

The scheme was approved in the PDWP meeting presided over by Planning and Development Board Chairman Muhammad Irfan Elahi. Planning and Development Board Private Sector Development Wing Member Farasat Iqbal, Infrastructure Development Member Dr Abid Bodla, Public-Private Partnership Member Agha Waqar Javed, Lahore Police Development Assistant Inspector General Ahmad Arslan Malik, Administration SSP Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera, Finance Department Deputy Secretary Mahmood Latif and Assistant Chief (Coordination) Planning and Development Ali Nazir attended the meeting.

Sukhera told The Express Tribune that the approved scheme was part of the Dolphin Squad project. “Under the approved scheme, two headquarters - Cantonment and Model Town divisions - will be built at the Dolphin Police Lines. It will also house Dolphin Squad personnel. The divisional headquarters will also have lockups for suspects. The police lines will have a central control room from where all patrolling officers will be monitored and guided,” he said.

Sukhera said that residential quarters for squad personnel would be built on the upper floors of the police lines. “The police lines will also have a mess, a recreation room and a gymnasium. A workshop for repairing motorcycles will also be built in lines,” he said.

SP Omer Saeed said that 1,200 policemen would be initially inducted in the force. “We will look for volunteers from within the police department. The minimum height for a squad member will be five-feet and nine inches. The age at induction will be between 25 and 35 years. The minimum academic qualification for squad trainers will be intermediate. The minimum qualification for squad personnel will be matriculation,” he said.

Requesting anonymity, a police official said a video camera would be embedded in the badge of each Dolphin Squad member. “The video and audio recording will help monitor the performance of the personnel. It will also serve as an important information source. The footage will be available to the central control room,” he said.

Sukhera said that after its approval by the PDWP, the project’s file would now go to Communications and Works Department. “A tender will be floated. It might take over a month to start the construction work,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2015.