The Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) has launched a Rs. 16 billion project to expand Punjab’s digital surveillance network across 98 tehsils. The initiative will add around 10,000 surveillance cameras and extend Safe City operations beyond the province’s major urban centers. The project is also planned to expand digital surveillance coverage to 7,602 union councils, increasing the use of technology-based monitoring and policing across Punjab.
According to officials, the expansion follows reported results from Punjab’s existing Safe City network, which they say has contributed to a 70% reduction in heinous and serious crimes across the province. Safe City operations are currently functional in nearly 40 cities, with 43 smart Safe City centers providing continuous surveillance and operational support to police and other law enforcement agencies. More than 24,000 high-definition cameras are already monitoring roads, markets, highways and public spaces across Punjab. The new project is intended to extend this infrastructure to tehsil-level areas and provide wider coverage across the province.
The surveillance network uses more than a dozen in-house artificial intelligence systems to process and analyze information collected through cameras. These include automatic number plate recognition, facial recognition, smart vision, crime analytics and intelligent traffic management systems. The technologies are used to analyze surveillance feeds, identify suspicious activity, detect stolen vehicles, monitor crime patterns and assist authorities in identifying potential crime hotspots. The Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre also integrates functions including emergency response, police dispatch, traffic management, criminal identification and virtual surveillance.
Officials have also highlighted coordination between PSCA, the Crime Control Department and district police as part of the wider Safe City operations. According to an official cited by Dawn, this coordination supports crime prevention, surveillance and rapid response. The provincial government plans to continue expanding technology-based policing under its Safe Punjab initiative, with the latest Rs. 16 billion project extending digital surveillance infrastructure to a much larger part of the province. The available reports do not provide a detailed completion timeline for the 98-tehsil expansion or specify when all 10,000 additional cameras will become operational.
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