BAHAWALPUR: The Bahawalpur Safe City project has been made functional in the city with the installation of 217 cameras initially at 48 selected sites, in collaboration with the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA).

This was stated by District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Hassan Iqbal, who was flankedby Safe City SSP Kashif Abdullah Bhatti at a media briefing held on Sunday here at the Bahawalpur Safe City head office building at the district police lines.

The DPO said the main objective of the project was the enforcement of law to protect the life and property of the citizens, nab the criminals andimprove the law and order.

He said the project was integrated with the PSCA Headquarters in Lahore and would soon be extended to all thetehsil headquarters in Bahawalpur and then to Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalnagar districts of the division.

The DPO hoped that the AI-powered safe city project would help improve law and order in the city and bring down the crime rate.

On the occasion, SSP Bhatti said the project`s buildinghas been constructed at a cost of over Rs450 million. while the total cost of installation of the gadgets and electronic appliances, including the costly cameras, which runs in millions, has been borne by the PSCA.

According to him, motorcyclists have beentold to wear helmets and motorists will have to use seatbelts while driving in addition to having complete documents, as they will be monitored by safe city cameras.

He said that in case of any violation of traffic rules, the E-challans would be sent to their home addresses.

He added that the onduty police personnel have been equipped with body cameras to monitor their performance and improve the traffic management system.

Besides, he said, two digital policestations have also been set up to continuously monitor crimes againstwomen and children.

He said the police helpline15 will pass on any emergency call about such crimes to these digital police stations for prompt action.

The SSP said that insome areas, special emergency buttons have been installed which, when pressed, will instantlytriggeraction by lawenforcement teams.

To a question, he said Satellite Town, which is a commercial hub of the city, was yet to be linked with the safe city project as more cameras were still awaited for it.

Meanwhile, district police on Sunday observed Police Martyrs Day by holding candlelight vigils at Khatm-eNubuwat Chowk, Bahawalpur, Thana More, Yazman, Allahwala Chowk, Khairpur Tamewali, ThanaComplex,Hasilpur and Munir Shaheed Chowk, Ahmedpur East.

A large number of people from different walks of life, including members of civil society, also joined police officials in these events.