Lucknow, Jun 11 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to set up 18 hi-tech cyber labs - one each in 18 police ranges of the state.

The decision will help police tackle cyber related challenges.

The government has also agreed to sanction Rs 40 crore for the project in the first phase.

DIG, UP cyber cell, N. Kolanchi said until now, only one cyber lab was functional at Forensic Science Lab in Lucknow.

"Now, each police range will have one cyber lab and whenever cyber related offences are reported, we can crack it in a lesser time frame since, at present, the pressure is on one lab only," he said.

He said in the cyber lab, specific tools are present which fastens the task, for instance the mobile of a criminal is found to be locked and encrypted then there are 'password recovery and data decryption tools' to do it in seconds.

Kolanchi said they have studied the existing cyber labs in other states like Telangana, Gujarat, Delhi and Mumbai and some foreign police models like that in New York were studied and analysed and based on it, an advanced structure of labs was proposed for the state.

The official added that it would have tools like forensic disk imaging tool, media content indexing tool, software programmes required for digital forensic evidence investigation.

He further said that cyber help desks are now being set up in all police stations.

"Now, not only will the arrest of cyber criminals be easy, but the pending investigations will be expedited," Kolanchi said, adding that UP police also got its personnel posted at NCRB's online cyber training module 'Cytrain'.

Another senior official at the DGP headquarters said impetus is being made on Uttar Pradesh State Institute of Forensic Sciences (UPSIFS) to come up soon.

"The main objective of establishing the UPSIFS is to build better policing, capacity building in the field of crime control and forensic sciences and to develop awareness and scientific attitude towards scientific institutions,"  Kolanchi said.