LAHORE: The capital city police have selected 1,800 points for the installation of CCTV cameras in a second citywide project. The project which is the second one after Karachi aims at preventing crimes, maintaining law and order and regulating traffic.
After the identification and selection of spots, a police team associated with the Integrated Command and Control Centre (IC³) is working on the technical layout of the project.
Officials told Dawn that of the 1,800 CCTVs, which will be linked with the IC³, 800 would be installed under a crime category and the remaining in general law and order, security and traffic categories.
They said 20 police stations, where crimes occurred more frequently, had been selected for surveillance cameras while entry-exit points of the city would also be guarded on priority to prevent terrorism, crime and the movement of outlaws.
Officials added Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ali Aamir Malik and Senior Superintendent of Police Tariq Nawaz Malik were supervising the IC³ project on the directive of the provincial government and that a building was being built at Qurban Police Lines.
DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar, who heads the operations wing, said locations had been selected in the light of information provided by the investigation wing which used crime mapping technology.
He said most of the CCTV cameras would be installed at crossings, signals, busy roads, large shopping malls and markets, flyovers, bridges, round-about, and all entry-exit points of six police divisions and the city.
He added new staff would be recruited for IC³ and operating the cameras. The DIG said the project of electronic surveillance in Lahore would go a long way towards the safer city and would be on a par with the developed cities like New York, Singapore, Istanbul, and Ankara.
Also, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at a meeting here on Tuesday reviewed the law and order situation in the province.
Provincial ministers Rana Sanaullah, Bilal Yasin and Shuja Khanzada, the chief secretary, the inspector general of police and the home secretary were present.
The chief minister said the IC³ would be linked with markets and bazaars through modern CCTV cameras.
The cameras in the provincial metropolis and IC³ would also be linked with divisional headquarters through satellite.
He directed the cabinet committee to review law and order in the province regularly.