Public to be tracked to promote safety

Shanghai is to track visitor numbers at 30 popular public and tourist spots this year to prevent disasters like the one at the Bund on New Year's Eve, city officials said yesterday.

The city is developing a system that will track data from phones, surveillance cameras and ticket sales to enable a speedy reaction in the case of a huge increase in visitor numbers, said Zhu Zongxiao, a senior official at the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology.

The commission is developing the system in conjunction with the telecommunication, tourism and public security bureaus and three telecommunication carriers and it will be tested soon, Zhu said on the sidelines of a meeting of the city's political advisory body.

Zhu Jianguo, a member of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said the city should be using big data analytics to improve public security and prevent tragedies like that on the Bund in which 36 people died and 49 were injured.

The new system will also be able to warn the public in the case of other emergencies such as earthquakes, fires and power cuts.

China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom will be meeting to draft detailed plans for action in the case of emergencies, the Shanghai Communications Administration said.

Visitors can get warning short messages within five minutes under the new system if it finds that there are potential risks.

Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong pledged to ensure safety yesterday by enhancing the evaluation and management of busy sites as well as making full preparations for emergencies.

The city will make emergency management plans for local subway stations, airports, tourism spots and shopping malls, while major events will need to be evaluated for safety risks in advance, Yang said at the opening of the annual session of the Shanghai People's Congress.

"All will become meaningless without safety," the mayor said as he delivered the local government's work report.

Of the Bund tragedy, Yang said: "The incident exposed the huge loopholes and risks on the urban safety management and we must find out and solve them one by one."

He added: "Those responsible have been held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. We share people's grief and acknowledge guilt and responsibility."

During a group discussion with Pudong New Area lawmakers, Shanghai Party Secretary Han Zheng said that the government should learn from the tragedy and put in place measures to prevent anything like that from ever happening again.

The government is to carry out safety checks throughout the city, he said.