Why in news? First phase of Bengaluru Safe City project was launched at ceremony organised by the Karnataka Home Department

Highlights:

• The Safe City project, is being implemented in many cities across the country under the ‘Nirbhaya Scheme’, created in the aftermath of a horrifying rape incident in New Delhi in 2016.
• The cost of the projects is shared between the Central Government and the concerned States in 60:40 ratio.
• Empowered Committee of Officers for Nirbhaya funds scheme has approved pilot Safe City projects in eight selected metropolitan cities, namely, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

How project is implemented in Karnataka?

• Honeywell Automation India Limited had bagged the contract for implementing police project to make Bengaluru a safe city for women.
• As a project’s phase 1 process, emergency call boxes or emergency panic buttons will be installed
• The blue coloured call boxes come with a panic button, which when pressed during emergency situations, raises a direct alert to the command centre in the commissionerate’s office.
• The police department will also roll out an automatic number plate recognition system, facial recognition system, crime analytics system, a mobile command centre and operating drones in a phased manner.
• Honeywell will also upgrade the city police department’s existing Suraksha app to help improve the incident response rate and citizen engagement.
• Bengaluru is among eight cities selected for enhancement of the security environment in phases using modern electronics and communication technology.