ISLAMABAD: The multi-billion rupee Safe City Project has been ineffective as far as curbing theft is concerned, police and traders say.

Traders have reported to the government that they financed the operation of the cameras and paid for electricity and allied facilities in the hopes that cases of car theft will be curbed but due to the poor quality of the night vision cameras, car theft cases have not reduced nor have recoveries been made.

The Safe City Project was conceived during the PPP government. The project called for the building of a bombproof command centre and the installation of around 2,000 cameras which were to be connected through 500 kilometres of fibre optic cable and operated via a 4G network.

In a lot of incidents, police could not identify thieves due to poor quality of recorded footage, traders complain

Approved in 2009, the project was made to support law enforcement agencies with a computer aided dispatch system and other software such as facial recognition and a vehicle management system. The project was challenged in the Supreme Court and in 2012 the court ordered for the project to be cancelled and instructed the National Accountability Bureau to proceed against the then prime minister and other officials. However, when the PML-N government was formed in 2013, the project was renegotiated with a Chinese company.

The project cost Rs12 billion and China gave a soft loan for the project at 2pc interest which is payable in 20 years. The project has been completed and the cameras get pictures of everyone passing through their range.

A letter written by Traders Welfare Association (Shaheen Group) Super Market President Sarfraz Mughal to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, available with Dawn, says that a number of incidents of theft from shops and car lifting have occurred and that according to the police, the thieves could not be identified due to the bad quality of cameras.

The letter says traders have been paying for the cameras and have appealed to the interior minister to help improve the quality of cameras installed. Talking to Dawn, Mr Mughal said traders cooperated with the government when the Safe City Project was being executed.

“As many as 17 poles were fixed in Super Market. Not only did we cooperate, we also provided free of cost electricity for the poles on which the cameras were installed. Because uninterrupted electricity was required, we requested banks and other businesses which had generators to provide free electricity,” he said.

“However, the police now tell us that the quality of cameras is not good which is why it is not possible to identify thieves and arrest them. I don’t know why billions of rupees were spent on the project if it is useless,” he said.

According to Mr Mughal, traders were told the cameras work during the day and not as well during the night.

“We are in our shops during the day, so we are not worried about theft then. But we cannot stay in our shops during the night to avoid theft because the cameras don’t work during the night,” he added.

When asked, investigation officer at the Kohsar Police Station, Mohammad Khan said there were problems in identifying thieves who steal at night.

“I have written to the higher ups to take the issue up with the concerned authorities because the night vision cameras take poor pictures and they need to be upgraded,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2017