RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD: Safe City Project is imperative to maintain peace and attract direct foreign investment in the province, said President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh.

He welcomed the Safe City Project launched in Lahore and said the government should take immediate steps to replicate it in other major cities of the province, including Faisalabad.

Continuing, the President FCCI said the total population of Faisalabad city has jumped to four million while urban radius has also been expanded up to 25 to 30 kilometres.

He said that the city thriving with huge population has insufficient police to regulate the system and nail down the criminals. He said that with meager financial resources and minimum police force we cannot make law and order situation satisfactory. He further said that CPEC and its related projects have increased the influx of the Chinese engineers and foreign buyers, hence we have to take extra measures to provide foolproof security. He said that recruitment and training of new policemen will be an Herculean task and its immediate solution is the safe city project through which the city will be monitored round-the-clock with Close Circuit TV cameras.

He said, “We could monitor the activities and movement of the unwanted persons through secret cameras installed at strategic points and particularly in congested business centers”. He said that previously a top doom camera was installed in the down town area of Clock Tower which helped in discouraging the criminal activities in all the eight bazaars of the city. Similarly, the CCTV cameras were also installed in other business centers which provided sense of security to the business community.

He said that under the safe city project the local administration should immediately pinpoint the sites where wireless cameras could be installed for regular and 24-hour monitoring of the areas concerned. He said that selection of high resolution and night vision cameras is imperative so that the criminals captured by the cameras could be clearly identified. He demanded that these cameras should be preferably installed in eight bazaars and on Canal Express Way. Similarly, these cameras could also be fixed on all exit and entrance points of the city to monitor the movements of the criminals.

Rana Sikandar-e-Azam SVP FCCI and VP Ahmed Hassan have also welcomed the safe city project and said that Punjab government should increase the police force proportionately to its population. Similarly, more traffic wardens should be deployed to regulate the traffic as the city has been expanded up to Sahianwala Interchange.