E-Paper
CCTVs recommended for vulnerable pockets in Chandigarh
The findings of the report, which focused on street lighting, traffic management and CCTV infrastructure, were shared by the ministry during the concluding day of the two-day “Smart cities CEOs conference on data and technology” in Chandigarh.
The Quality Council of India (QCI) on Friday suggested the Chandigarh Smart City Limited to increase surveillance in the city’s vulnerable pockets, including unauthorised colonies, following a detailed assessment of 12 smart cities to evaluate the safety and security of its citizens.
The QCI made the suggestions in its report of the detailed assessment of integrated command and control centres (ICCCs) of the 12 smart cities.
The findings of the report, which focused on street lighting, traffic management and CCTV infrastructure, were shared by the ministry during the concluding day of the two-day “Smart cities CEOs conference on data and technology” in Chandigarh.
The union government authorities had recently initiated an audit for which union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) engaged QCI to conduct a multifaceted assessment of ICCCs in 12 smart cities for evaluating the effectiveness and changes that these systems have been able to make in citizens’ lives for safety and security.
The twelve cities include Agartala, Agra, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Prayagraj, Pimpri Chinchwad, Raurkela, Surat and Varanasi.
In its report, the QCI further said that 99% of the devices have been deployed under the project with its functionality of 95%.
“All the devices except facial recognition systems (FRS) and emergency call box (ECB) system were available. In terms of traffic management, it was also found that analytics like parking violation detection, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) System and Red Light Violation Detection (RLVD) System were majorly deployed on ICCC devices,” the report said.
The report further shared that the majority of the surveillance devices were deployed at city’s main roads and entry-exit points, but suggestions by the stakeholders pointed out the need for installation of devices, such as CCTVs, in vulnerable pockets like unauthorised colonies. The QCI also suggested CSCL to integrate fire and medical departments with dialing 100.
The QCI ranked Chandigarh as the second best city among the 12 cities, after Agra, and scored Chandigarh 79% in terms of facility audit; 99% in development for device audit; 95% in functionality in device audit; 39% in traffic junction covered; 16% in streetlights covering road length under process audit; and 80% in development of VA/AI in the process audit.
Notably, the score card of Chandigarh was higher as compared to the average score of the 12 cities, which stood 67% in terms of facility audit; 82% in development for device audit; 73% in functionality in device audit; 34% in traffic junction covered; 11% in street lights covering road length under process audit; and 39% in development of VA/AI in the process audit.
About city’s ICCC project:
Termed as “brain of city”, the ICCC supports digital applications and ensures seamless steady state operations, city management, surveillance, emergency response mechanisms and real-time tracking of services and vital city metrics throughout the city, and in government departments. The CSCL is also making efforts to make its ₹295-crore state-of-the-art ICCC project as ‘self-reliant’.
Meanwhile, Kunal Kumar, joint secretary and mission director – Smart Cities Mission, presented the India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) awards to Chandigarh Smart City Limited on Friday for leading the data democratisation.
IUDX is the data-sharing platform of MoHUA built and deployed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and is deployed in 33 Smart Cities and the industry/startup ecosystem is taking public and privately owned datasets through IUDX and building and deploying impactful applications across these cities. The certificate of appreciation was presented to all the 33 cities.