MEXICO CITY – Telefonos de Mexico and French defense contractor Thales will install 8,080 security cameras in Mexico City as part of the “Safe City” plan, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said.

“This is the most important change in the security area that has occurred in the city in the past 40 years. It means radically changing the way we work on the issue of security,” the mayor said Monday at a public event.

The three-year project will cost a total of $460 million, Thales said in a statement posted on its Web site.

“The project’s goal is to better protect citizens against a wide range of threats, including crime, terrorism, attacks on strategic sites, natural disasters and other emergencies,” Thales said.

Mexico City has 8 million residents, with a total of nearly 20 million people living in the metropolitan area, and has one of the highest crime rates in the world.

The security plan is part of a larger initiative, the “Bicentennial Project,” to improve life in the city as it marks Mexico’s two centuries of independence in 2010. EFE