Peshawar           -         Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan on Saturday said that protection of lives and properties of the citizen was his government’s top priority and responsibility and all available resources would be utilized to this end.

Presiding over a meeting to review progress on the proposed Peshawar Safe City Project (PSCP), Mahmood Khan directed the concerned authorities to design the project in such a way that it should cater for the futuristic security needs of the provincial capital. He also directed all relevant departments to fix realistic timelines to make progress on the project and to take all required steps to ensure physical progress as per the fixed timelines.

The Chief Minister expressed satisfaction over the progress so far made on the project and directed the concerned quarters for necessary steps to get the PC-1 approved from all competent forums as per the given timelines. He termed the proposed project as of highly importance for the all time solution of the security issues of the provincial capital and directed the relevant authorities to carry out a detailed study of the Lahore and Islamabad Safe City Projects before starting practical work on Peshawar Safe City Project to avoid repetition of mistakes and faults once committed on those projects. He said that practical work on the project be started after ensuring its feasibility in all respects.

Mahmood Khan stressed the need of going for a suitable financing mood and operational module to make the project feasible and sustainable and directed that comprehensive strategy be devised to address all possible technical issues which might hinder smooth implementation of the project.

Earlier, the meeting was given detailed briefing about various aspects of the project including timelines for the timely completion of different processes, estimate cost, current status, moods of implementation, future plan of action and proposals to proceed further in the matter.

The meeting was informed that 11 Kanals of land had been allotted for the construction of Command and Control Centre of the project, survey of 31 police stations had been completed and 940 points had been identified for installation of 3500 cameras.

 The meeting was further informed that PC-1 of the project had been finalized and submitted to the Provincial Development Working Party for approval which would later be submitted to the Central Development Working Party and Executive Committee of the National Economic Council for final approval.