Personally, I am a motorhead. I like working on my own car, to enhance its performance or aesthetic appearance. So, the opportunity to work on the Next-Generation Fast Response Car was one of the coolest and most challenging things I had ever done.
“Personally, I am a motorhead. I like working on my own car, to enhance its performance or aesthetic appearance,” said Pawandeep, who has tweaked his own car’s performance, and changed its exhaust pipe to generate a growl instead of a purr.
“So, the opportunity to work on the Next-Generation Fast Response Car was one of the coolest and most challenging things I had ever done."
Pawandeep and the team integrated the NGFRC with state-of-the-art video surveillance systems capable of 360-degrees real time surveillance with livestreaming back to a central command. It enables automatic scanning of car licence plates within seconds, to match vehicles of interest that the police are looking for.
All these tech features are centrally controlled through an integrated touch-screen panel, which makes operating them easier, user-friendly and allows the officers to concentrate better on the road thereby improving road safety.
“A lot of considerations were made to ensure cabin space is not affected by the numerous equipment that were installed,” said Pawandeep. “Even the sensors which are mounted externally were carefully designed to blend in well with the chassis.”
The team worked closely with the HTX Cybersecurity Centre of Expertise to ensure that the security of the car’s technological systems is robust to prevent against unauthorize hacking into the systems.
Pawandeep (right) with the NGFRC project team mates, Chan Li Wei (middle) from Policing Programme Management Centre and Samuel Seah (left) from Land Systems Centre of Expertise (Photo: HTX)
The opportunity to work closely with senior Singapore Police Force (SPF) and HTX colleagues, including the chairman of the project, was an eye-opener.
“I learnt a lot from my senior colleagues on how they challenged the technology partners to push boundaries. Even though the partners would at times say, ‘this is not possible’, the project team would get them to see it from another angle and push for innovative solutions so that we can design and develop the best system solution,” said Pawandeep.
A few of these police cars are already on the road, and about 300 will be rolled out by 2024.
“I am very proud to see the success of the NGFRC. It is really exciting to see something evolving from paper design to an integrated and technologically superior solution with a state-of-the-art capability. The NGFRC will be a game-changer for SPF in keeping Singapore safe,” said Pawandeep.
Following his father’s footsteps to become a public servant in 2015 has allowed Pawandeep to have a better appreciation of his father’s work. “My father has been in public service for thirty-seven years. He used to share with us how proud he is to be doing work that benefits the people and Singapore. That’s how I feel about my work now!” said Pawandeep.
Pawandeep (right) and his father, Charanjit Singh, Director, Central Procurement Office / HTX (left)