Sylhet city has now become more secure than ever. As a part of transforming Sylhet district into smart city Face Recognition and Automatic Number-plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras have been installed in the city under the 'Digital Sylhet City' project implemented by Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under the Information and Communication Technology Division, says a press release.
The inauguration program took place yesterday in the conference room of Sylhet District Commissioner’s office.
In the event, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. A. K Abdul Momen was present as the chief guest and Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Division and Mortuza Ahmed, Chief Information Commissioner were present as special guests.
Piloting of “RTI Online Tracking System”, “Public Wi-Fi Zone” and “IP Camera Based Surveillance System with AI support” has been inaugurated today and Bangladesh Computer Council is implementing the project. This development project will also ensure the Information Commission’s initiative to implement the Right to Information Act (RTI) in a digital manner.
Under this project, around 110 “AI based IP Cameras” have been installed in different points of the city this includes Zindabazar Point, Surma Market Point, Lama Bazar Point, Amber Khana Point, Mazargate, Jail Khana Point, Subid Bazar Point, Shahi Eidgah area, etc. Also, a monitoring room has been constructed at Kotowali Model Police Station in Sylhet to control these special IP cameras.
Sylhet Metropolitan Police will be in charge of controlling this latest security system.
In this case, if a criminal or blacklisted vehicle number is seen in the area covered by an IP camera, an automatic signal will ring in the control room, which will help the SMP to quickly identify the offender. Also, Police personnel will also be able to search the IP camera's server with pictures or vehicle numbers of any suspect. This robust technology will help police to maintain proper law and will also enrich the efficiency of their investigation, which would help to remove the prevailing feelings of insecurity.
Additionally free Wi-Fi zone has been constructed under this project at 62 locations in Sylhet with a total of 126 access points and the people residing in Sylhet will now be able to access government websites and avail services from the Wi-Fi zone. Huawei has provided the tracking system solutions and the devices of this project.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. A. K Abdul Momen said, “We are now implementing the smart security systems that are being used in the developed countries presently. At this moment, we are ensuring the same services to our people which is being provided by the developed countries governments’ though their per capita income is much higher than us. As the tracking system has been launched now this will take the overall security of Sylhet to a new level. As far as I know, in the case of Sylhet I saw today, Huawei has deployed the same solution in many Western countries. I am very happy to see the efforts of a foreign company and believe that Huawei is an important partner in our digital Bangladesh.”
Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Division said, “Now security guard by gun or pistol is not only the options to ensure the safety of public. We have implemented monitoring cameras in every important roads, highways and places to facilitate 24x7 scanning from monitoring centers for ensuring the safety. Sylhet city has become more secure now and also become a model city of our country. Huawei as one of the main participant of Digital Bangladesh, their technologies and solutions are really contributing to enhance the lives of people by working hand in hand with local industry. I thank them for being with us.”
The ceremony was chaired by Md. Mostafizur Rahman, PAA, Divisional Commissioner, Sylhet.
Partha Pratim Dev, Executive Director of Bangladesh Computer Council, Mohammad Mustafizur Rahman, Project Director of A2I, Project Director of Digital Sylhet City Project, Mohammad Mohidur Rahman Khan and Deputy Project Director Madhu Sudan Chand, Mohammad Saiful Alam Khan, Director, Software Quality Testing and Certification of BCC, Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner and Huawei officials were present on the occasion. Higher officials of the City Corporation and Sylhet Metropolitan Police were also present in the event.