HYDERABAD: About seven years after it started, work on the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) continues and its promised inauguration keeps being put off. Over these seven years, the city has seen two Police Commissioners, Anjani Kumar and CV Anand, while the cost of the project has shot up from Rs 350 crore to Rs 585 crores.
Sources told Express that there are several reasons for the delay in completion of the project, including digging out the rocky surface that alone took a good eight months. And then there was the pandemic that forced everything to pause. During these seven years, the design of the centre saw some changes and their incorporation too contributed to the delay.
Anand, who took charge as Hyderabad Police Commissioner in December 2021, visited the ICCC five times and each time he said that its inauguration was not far off. In fact, at the start of 2022, the city police chief announced that it would be inaugurated on Ugadi day. During his recent visit to the under-construction ICCC, he again said ‘very soon’.
In mid-June, Home Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, who visited the site along with the DGP and Anand, had said that the ICCC would be operational in three months. The ICCC will harness the power of the latest technology for better coordination between all Government departments like the GHMC, Fire, Electricity, Water and others during emergencies, natural or man-made.
The 6.42 lakh square feet world-class structure is coming up at Road No. 10, Banjara Hills in a seven-acre land parcel. The building will have five towers, Tower A and B will have 20 and 17 floors respectively, while Tower C will house the auditorium, Tower D will have a training centre and will also be used for media briefing while Tower E will be allocated for the other purposes.