Six years on, Karachi yet to become a safe city
As Safe City project continues to face delays, Wahab says project near completion
KARACHI:
The Safe City project, under which Karachi is to see the installation of 10,000 CCTV cameras, will reach completion soon, said Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab, after the scheme had been delayed for around six years.
During this period, the initial estimated cost of the project has ballooned from Rs10 billion to Rs30b and the committee set up to finalise the project has held multiple meetings.
The Safe City project for Karachi was launched in 2015. Besides the installation of 10,000 CCTV cameras across the metropolis, the project was conceived to include the replacement of traditional vehicle number plates by camera-readable radio frequency identification (RFID) number plates to facilitate data collection, among other purposes. These number plates, with security features, were also to be used for tax collection.