The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) of the Planning Commission, scheduled to meet today (Wednesday) may recommend "Safe City Islamabad" project at a revised cost of over Rs 12 billion ($151.15 million) with financial assistance of the Exim Bank of China to directly buy state-of-the-art technologies from Chinese company to improve performance of LEAs.
The Safe City project was conceived in 2009 to strengthen the abilities of LEAs as well as intelligence agencies to counter terrorism.
According to the agenda of the CDWP meeting to be chaired by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq, the project will be tabled to be recommended to the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) for formal approval.
In December 2010, during Chinese Prime Minister's visit, a government concessional loan agreement on the Safe City Islamabad project was signed between Pakistan and the Exim Bank of China. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had witnessed the signing of documents as the respective ministers and officials of Pakistan and China inked them.
Under this new project, an effective and adequate security framework would be created in Islamabad and LEAs would be strengthened by utilising the state-of-the-art technologies. Emergency command centres will be set up to handle any incident with centralised control rooms. Effective surveillance system, under this project, will be launched to monitor the movement of unauthorised vehicles.
Security of High Security Zone will be further beefed up and fencing will be raised. Gates will be built at entry and exit points of the security zone along with installation of CCTVs and police guard rooms at the gates. Scanners for checking of vehicles will be placed at the entry points.
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