The city hall building of General Santos City (PNA GenSan file photo) GENERAL SANTOS CITY - The city government is targeting to complete by next year its PHP451-million synchronized traffic signalization and city-wide closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera system project. Mylene Gecosala, acting head of the city public safety office's traffic engineering division, said on Tuesday the procurement stage is ongoing for the project, which has an implementation period of 15 months. She said it covers the installation of traffic signalization systems in 22 intersections with over 200 CCTV cameras in various parts of the city. The camera systems will be connected via fiber optic cables to a command center that will be opened by the local government, she said. "The system will be interconnected later on with the CCTV cameras of business establishments through the command center," Gecosala said in an interview over local television show "Morning Hataw." The local government, through Mayor Ronnel Rivera, has been pushing for the project as early as 2018 but it got delayed due to changes in its terms of reference and performance specification. The project will mainly expand and upgrade the existing 11 traffic light systems, some of which were installed over a decade ago in major intersections in the downtown area and the national highway. The 22 additional intersections were earlier identified in a study by the city's traffic engineering unit as critical sections due to heavy vehicular traffic. When fully operational, Gecosala said the system will enhance the city's traffic and law enforcement operations. She said traffic violations would be easily documented by the command center with the help of the installed cameras along the covered intersections. The city engineer's office earlier said the cameras will have modern features such as face recognition, face tamper recognition, color recognition, and other functions. It will be useful in the identification of traffic violators through the "no contact" enforcement policy and in alerting authorities about the possible movements of criminal elements, it said. "We will be able to see drivers who are using their cellphones while driving as well as other violations such as untimely overtaking and motorists beating the red light," Gecosala said. (PNA) }