CHANDIGARH: To make policing more efficient, responsive, and professional as per the commitment of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav on Wednesday outlined an ambitious and technology-driven “Vision 2026” for the Punjab Police, centered on a massive infrastructure and capability upgrade.
A key focus is the upgrade of the Dial 112 Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) with dedicated Dial 112 Central control room building to be established at Mohali with the cost of ₹52 crores, while a fleet of vehicles will be augmented with the cost of ₹50 crores.
“Our target is to drastically reduce the current average response time of 12-13 minutes to just 7-8 minutes, ” said the DGP, while adding that simultaneously, District Control Rooms across Punjab are also being upgraded with an investment of ₹25 crores to ensure seamless coordination and faster incident management, directly contributing to the reduced response time target.
DGP Gaurav Yadav, accompanied by IGP Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill, was addressing a press conference to share the future roadmap of Punjab Police.
For border security, DGP Gaurav Yadav said that the Second Line of Defence will see 2, 367 CCTV cameras installed at 585 locations along the International Border at a cost of ₹49.58 crores, which will be act as force multipliers.
The Anti-Drone System (ADS) fleet will be expanded from the current three operational systems to an additional six under procurement, with 10 more to be procured later in a phased manner, he said, while adding that Drone Response Teams (DRTs) have also been pressed into action, and will be greatly synergised with Village Defence Committees (VDC) members’ involvement in the coming year.
Highlighting the continuous modernisation drive, the DGP revealed that the Punjab Government has spent over ₹800 crores on modernisation of Punjab Police in the last three years. He said that all the SP rank officers in the field have been given new vehicles, besides, all the Police Stations and Police Posts have also been equipped with new vehicles.
To improve traffic management and emergency response in cities, the DGP said that dedicated Traffic and Road Safety Police Stations will be established. These will be integrated with Integrated Command & Control Centres (IC3) for real-time monitoring using city CCTV feeds and adaptive traffic signals, he said.