1950 Facial Recognition Cameras Can Track Anyone in Islamabad in Minutes

Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Monday inaugurated “Safe City Project”, which has been completed at a cost of $126 million to ensure foolproof security in the federal capital- Islamabad.

It will serve as a role model for other parts of the countries and will be replicated in other cities.

Whole City is Covered by CCTV Cameras

Under the project, 1950 CCTV cameras have been installed, enabling the city to have a technology-based security system. The entire security system of the city is linked with these CCTV cameras to keep vigilance on suspects.

The total cost of the project is Rs. 15.865 billion (including $125 million as foreign component and Rs 4 billion as local component on account of duties and taxes.

This system would have facial detection system as camera based facial recognition software had been included. The video summary software and 4G technology has been acquired for CCTV cameras while a control centre has been established in Sector H-11.

The installation of CCTV cameras will also assist in controlling crime rate in the capital and keeping check on car-lifting. These gadgets will assist security departments in tracing criminal and suspect elements.

Major Parts of Safe City Project for Islamabad

Major components of safe city project are

  • Bomb proof 2,900 square meter command center building
  • 1950 surveillance cameras
  • 500 km fiber optic
  • eLTE 4-G network
  • Computer aided dispatch system and other software including facial recognition, vehicle management system etc.

Further the project consists of Emergency Command Center equipped with 72 screens and drone cameras, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag readers, turnstiles and barriers to report, identify, control and manage any accident as well as ensuring timely action against any suspect appearing on the screen.

RFID is the wireless use of electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. The tags contain electronically stored information.

The installation of CCTV cameras will assist in controlling crime rates, terrorist activities in the capital and keeping check on car-lifting.

With the assistance of recordings of CCTV cameras, traffic violations in the capital will also be monitored and drivers involved in violations of traffic rules will get tickets as per registration numbers of vehicles at their home addresses.

A ‘Rapid Response Force’ of ICT Police will remain on alert to reach any crime scene within three minutes.

After it’s operational, Islamabad will be included in the list of safe capitals of the world where security measures are ensured through modern technology and security apparatus is interlinked with the ‘Rapid Response Force’ to take immediate action on every kind of suspect activity.

CCTV cameras have been installed at all main roads, intersections, markets and exit and entrance points of the capital. To interlink coordination through these CCTV cameras, a ‘Command and Control Centre’ has been established to monitor suspect activities in the city. Upright police officials will perform duties at the ‘Command and Control Centre’ round-the-clock to keep an eye on suspect activities in the capital.

To take action on suspect activities which appear on CCTV cameras, the ‘Rapid Response Force’ of ICT Police will remain on alert to reach the scene within three minutes.

Amidst challenges of terrorism incidents, the project will streamline security measures for Islamabad. The coordination on part of the ‘Rapid Response Force’ will become vital to identify and arrest elements involved in suspect activities.


  • Some sources said that 450 camera are not operational and management gave “OK” report to higher authorities.

    • Firewalls are protecting the data & the network is running on private IP so not so easy to hack or modify the camera output

  • Once the Cameras been installed my question is “Will the check post shall be removed who put ten Rs torch on every individuals to identify either they are the terrorist or not”.

  • Police vans having cameras looking around can also be used for petroling . next step would be like this as in other cities.

    • Lahore is already awarded to Huawei, while balochistan, quetta and khi are in initial phase..

  • Why not put cameras on all police cars and bikes too? Connect them with the main network. Also put cameras in all police stations too. Should help with the police abuse neh?

  • Facial recognition cameras, hmmmmm ok, but are they integrated with Nadra database and FIA database for recognition, my apologies but this is just a question ?

    • These are mere musings of ladla babo people of your government. We have a huge graveyard of ‘technology’ projects and no one says fatehaa for them anymore.
      Lesco envisaged photo based record keeping of electricity meter readings. Use Google to find out how poor and pathetic of an idea was it.

  • I wish, i could be a part of this team who actually design and deployed this huge project.. being a telecom enginner its my dream to work somthing like this, lots of technologies are integrated in single project.
    Already designed a project for 1500 cameras and 950 cameras for safe city projects other than Islamabad

  • Wah Jee Wah, nothing will happen
    Awam hard earned money will go wasted in 2-3 years when govenment will change.
    Sarkari Offices are still using Windows XP and IE 5, how can you expect the people sitting in H-11 Head office be able to provide fool proof security.

    Just adding a picture for humor only.

  • Mery cuson ki car g10 islamabad se pistol ki nok pe koi le gia hai is k liye kia karen? Jab k g11 islamabad police k mitabik yahi se pehly bhi kai gariyan ghaib hovi hain so please koi acha sa solution bataen.
    With best regards
    Thanks


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