NEW DELHI: The Centre has selected eight cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Lucknow - to undertake projects to make all public places safe for women. The cities have been asked to submit proposals in the one-and-a-half months so that projects can be rolled out quickly.

Sources said the government plans to start these works by January-end. All these cities have been selected under the ambitious Smart City mission and the projects will be financed from the Nirbhaya Fund.

"Each city will submit its plans and the home ministry will allocate funds for them, which the agencies concerned will have to be implement in the next 18 months," an official said.

Home secretary Rajiv Gauba held the first comprehensive review of the progress made and steps taken by police and the civil administration of these eight cities on Wednesday. Gauba suggested the need for integrated command and control centres and on collaborative monitoring by police and privately installed CCTV cameras in a time-bound and phased manner.

Mumbai Police has successfully linked the private CCTV cameras in Zaveri Bazaar locality to their control room, which was discussed at the meeting. Initiatives of other cities including Himmat App, All Women Patrol Van, Shishtachar Programme of Delhi Police; SHE teams, Hawkeye Mobile App and Bharosa programme of Hyderabad Police; Suraksha App of Bengaluru Police; and Power Angels of UP Police were also discussed in detail.

Officials said UP and Ahmedabad Police shared how they got perception study of women done before introducing effective interventions.

A release issued by the home ministry said, "Various issues reviewed included 33% reservation of women in police, installation of CCTV cameras, deployment of women in police stations, emergency response system, police verified public transport etc."

prevention of cyber crime, infrastructure issues, mapping of dark spots and crime-prone areas and involvement of educational institutions, among others."

