ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry and National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) on Monday assured the National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reforms that Islamabad Safe City Project would be completed by October this year.

The discussion took place during a meeting, chaired by MNA Abdul Majeed Khanan Khail, at the Parliament House.

The project was conceived during the tenure of the PPP government. Under the project, 2,000 CCTV cameras would be installed around the city and connected through 500km of fibre optic cable to a bombproof command centre and operated through a 4G network.

The project, approved in 2009, aimed to provide support to law enforcement agencies with a computer aided dispatch system and other software such as facial recognition and vehicle management system. However, it was challenged in the Supreme Court and in 2012 the court ordered for the project to be cancelled, instructing National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to proceed against then prime minister and other officials.

Under the project 2,000 CCTV cameras would be installed around the capital

However, when the PML-N formed government, the project was renegotiated with a Chinese company and NAB also gave clearance to the project.

On Monday, Nadra Member Finance Shahid Hamid, while briefing the members of the committee, said that the project, worth $124 million (over Rs12 billion) will be completed by October this year.

He said that under the project as many as 1,950 cameras will be installed all over the city, out of which 1,706 will be surveillance cameras and 244 will be used for the vehicle management.

“Real time facial recognition technology will be introduced in the system through which, it would be possible to arrest the suspect if his picture is already part of the database. The software would also allow 12 hours of footage to be fast forwarded to six minutes because of advanced technology,” he said.

Mr Hamid said that 55 per cent payment for the project i.e. Rs6.129 billion have been paid and the remaining Rs5.088 billion will be paid soon.

“China has provided a soft loan of $124 billion at two per cent interest rate and since there was a grace period of five years, interest will be paid from next year. In 2016-17 another $6.24 million will be paid to the company for maintenance and other service,” he said.

Mr Hamid said that a new system would be introduced through which security cleared people will be given stickers for their vehicles and would not be stopped at checkposts.

In response to a question about the delay in the implementation of the project, Mr Hamid explained that it was originally decided that all equipment for the project would be imported duty free but FBR refused to exempt duty of the goods. So, the equipment was not available for a number of months and was eventually released in the last week of June 2015.

Mr Hamid, while responding to a question by MNA Chaudhry Jafar Iqbal, said that cameras had been installed at four places in the city and the rest would be installed after Eid.

“Currently, there are three rings of police check posts in the city and after the installation of cameras they would be reduced to one ring because surveillance will be carried out through cameras,” he said.

Replying to a question by MNA Shaheen Shafiq, Mr Hamid said that the cameras installed at four places are only for demonstration.

Additional Secretary Ministry of Interior Tariq Mehmood said that the safe city project has been made to assist police and they would act in response to information provided by the command centre.

“Footage from CCTV cameras is usually not of good quality but the cameras of the Safe City Project would have clear footage as high definition cameras and advanced technology would be used,” he said.

Later, Mr Hamid told Dawn that the Chinese government is paying for part of the cost for the project so there would be no problem trying to make the remaining payment of Rs 5billion.

“However there is issue of import duty, which is around Rs 3.5 billion which would hopefully be resolved soon,” he said.

Security Scanners also discussed

The chairman committee MNA Abdul Majeed raised the matter of four security scanners which had been imported from China during the tenure of the PPP government and inquired about the cost.

Additional Secretary Interior Tariq Mehmood said that the cost of scanners was Rs 1 billion.

“Islamabad police refused to take these scanners because they could not be used to detect explosives. So two scanners were given to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, one to Sindh government and one to Rangers,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2015

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