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13 Jun 2008:
Karachi. June 13: The City Government Karachi has offered police department to use its command and control centre, recently established at the civic centre, for controlling crimes, terrorist attacks and monitoring traffic.
The offer was made by City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal during a briefing to media representatives on Command and Control Centre on Friday. The project which is first of its kind in Pakistan will be officially inaugurated on Sunday. Under the system full video monitoring of two model corridors (signal free corridor-I&II) of the city will be made through a sophisticated wireless video security surveillance network while the system will be gradually extended to other areas of the city.
The city government has acquired all technical expertise and equipments for this project. The first phase of the project has been completed with a cost of Rs.1100 millions under which 54 cameras have been installed on both signal free corridors and the centre has begun working on experimental basis.
Giving more details of the project the City Nazim said that latest Wimax technology has been used in this system while the experts from United States and Europe were hired for training of the staff. Within two weeks the system will also be linked with a most modern ambulance system so that in case of any emergency it could be dispatched to the site of the accident. The ambulances have been purchased from Mercedes Benz Company.
Nazim Karachi said the latest Wimax Technology has been used for cameras and all technology hardware and software have been imported from USA and European countries. In order to provide fool proof security and reliability to the system the whole network is on a licensed band from PTA which is used for public safety around the world. He said that the physical security and surveillance is the front line against criminal and terrorism threats, now a days it is the top priority for every government to provide the safe and secure environment for their citizens and guard its infrastructure by adopting any available technology that can be used to resolve the traffic congestion and also help to reduce street crimes.
The City Nazim said that the project was launched in January 2008 and now its first phase has been completed. The whole project took only six months to complete with all international standards. He said that it was a hard job to do as being first of its kind in Pakistan it was much difficult to introduce a new thing.
The wireless network coverage area is 36km with fiber optic back up. Mainly 54 cameras have been installed to cover two main arteries of Karachi known as Signal Free Corridor-I(from SITE to Karzas and Sharae Faisal) and Signal Free Corridor-II( from Nagan Chowrangi to Drigh Road and Sharae Faisal)
Nazim Karachi said that the main objectives of this system were to improve the physical security of citizen thorough video security cameras and to monitor the traffic flow and clear congestion on the roads through worldʼs best available technology. To Guard the CDGK infrastructure such as flyovers, underpasses and bridges and closely coordinate and work with traffic police along with Sindh crime Police in command and control centre to respond to law and order situation effectively were other objectives of the project. He said that the next phase of this project will include installation of the LPR (License Plate Recognition) Biometric Face Recognition and RFID system after which it would become very easy to identify the movements on streets of individuals, cars and other type of transit measure while it will be difficult for anyone to evade the law enforcement agencies.
Reference karachicity.gov.pk
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