PESHAWAR: Two months after launching the Peshawar Safe City Project, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police on Thursday signed an agreement with the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation for rolling out the intiative in the southern districts of Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Lakki Marwat as well.

The agreement was signed by Safe City Project Director and Deputy Inspector General (Information Technology) Rai Ijaz Ahmad and NRTC General Manager (Commercial) Syed Amir Javed during a special ceremony here.

While speaking on the occasion, Inspector General of Police Zulfiqar Hameed said for carrying out the Safe City Project in DI Khan, Bannu and Lakki Marwat, funds had been released to the NRTC.

He said the project would to be completed within six months to be a “milestone for restoration of peace in the southern region of the province.”

Mr Hameed said the Safe City Project would play an important role in preventing terrorism and bringing terrorists to task after their identification through high-resolution cameras.

He said the project would also help check street crimes.

“it’s a step toward police digitalisation, criminal identification and access to records,” he said.

Later, Mr Hameed’s office issued a statement, declaring that before the contract was signed between the police and NRTC, a survey was carried out for the project in Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Lakki Marwat.

It added that the survey identified 86 locations for installation of over 400 cameras in Dera Ismail Khan, 69 for over 300in Bannu and 41 for over 250 in Lakki Marwat.

The project will improve security situation in the three districts, according to the statement.

On April 13, the KP government and NRTC signed an agreement to implement the Peshawar Safe City Project at the cost of Rs2.2 billion in the next six months.

The agreement was signed at the Chief Minister’s House where DIG Ijaz said 710 modern closed-circuit television cameras would be installed in the city under the project.

He said that the project was not just a CCTV system but instead, based on artificial intelligence, it would have the ability to identify criminals and vehicles for being linked to the police’s database.

“In case the system flags a vehicle, the police’s emergency patrols will be immediately alerted,” he said.

Mr Saeed also revealed that the project would be integrated with the CCTV system introduced for the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit and other commercial installations.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2025