Municipality contracts Dar Group for security consultancy

The Municipality of Beirut has appointed Dar Group-Nazih Taleb for a $1 million contract to supervise the implementation of a plan to monitor the streets of the capital for security violations.

Mayor Bilal Hamad said: “We have chosen Nazih Taleb because his firm had already conducted the security master plan [for this project] and so it is only natural that we should task his company with supervising its implementation.”

Hamad said that the municipality does not have the qualified staff to oversee the plan’s execution. “This goes beyond our expertise so we hired the right people to make sure that everything will be conducted according to the tender and terms of reference,” he said.

The Municipality had signed a $30 million-$35 million supply and apply contract with Guardia Systems, which began implementation last August. The contract was for the operation and maintenance of cameras, data centers, and control rooms for the next five years.

The plan called for 1,800 fixed cameras, Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ), and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras are being installed, in addition to two data centers and two control rooms. The cameras are distributed in 350 checkpoints in Beirut. ANPRs will be installed over Beirut’s entrances. The data centers have a storage capacity of 5,000 terra bytes that last for six months. Each control room will require 50 operators to monitor the cameras.

Around 30 percent of all works have been accomplished so far. According to the contract, Guardia Systems, which won a public tender, has one year to complete installations, training, and testing of equipment.

Hamad said: “This plan protects the capital and reduces the crime rate. Criminals will have to think ten times before committing a crime.” He also said that acts of terrorism will also drop because even if the perpetrator is not deterred, he will be caught eventually.