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Photo courtesy: L&T Smart World
Being future-ready is the aim of India’s smart cities mission (SCM). And an integral part of that is ensuring the safety and security of citizens. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the future is now, with existing smart city models having to prove their agility and ability to handle a pandemic.
The negative impact on project execution aside, executors of the SCM are now being impelled to draw learnings from the ongoing pandemic and apply these to situations on ground to build effective and long-term solutions. Their capability to reinvent and refine smart city models to accommodate for today’s scenario has the potential to be a gamechanger.
Table 1: India’s Smart City Mission
With regard to execution, as on March 31, 2020, 1,582 projects worth Rs 26,550 crore were completed—just 13 percent of the total budgeted outlay of SCM. Projects worth Rs 96,370 crore are under implementation and tendering will soon happen for projects worth Rs 41,000 crore. So, to view project implementation as a whole, as on March 31, 2020, work orders amounting to Rs 1,22,835 crore have been issued and the Centre has disbursed Rs 19,552 crore.
Further, road projects have been given priority ahead of the onset of the monsoon, with 151 road projects worth Rs 2,353 crore completed and around 296 projects worth Rs 12,825 crore under implementation. Similarly, 41 smart solar projects worth Rs 216 crore have been completed with another 40 such projects worth Rs 708 crore under implementation. As for wastewater management, 36 projects worth Rs 1,380 crore have been completed and 104 projects worth Rs 10,986 crore are under implementation. And on the PPP front, 88 projects worth Rs 3,675 crore are complete and 102 projects worth Rs 12,331 crore are under implementation.
In fact, across India, 45 smart city ICCCs were transformed overnight into COVID-19 war rooms. As the nerve centre for operations to contain the spread of the pandemic, these ICCCs were used efficiently for various municipal functions, including essential services like water supply, traffic management, street lighting, monitoring transportation movement,property tax collection and, most important, CCTV control for security.
“L&T Smart World has been working with various city administrations and state governments to effectively manage complex civic functions in metropolitan cities,” shares SN Subrahmanyan, CEO & MD, L&T.“With its ability to seamlessly integrate various smart technologies to manage surveillance, crowd management, message delivery and communication to the residing populace, L&T is supporting the transformation of city civic administrations [see box on L&T’s initiatives].”
This is affirmed by key functionaries across the country.
As Sudesh Kumar Sundarani, GM (Technical), Raipur Smart City,says, “The sudden advent of the COVID-19 pandemic needed coordinated efforts by city authorities. Thanks to L&T Smart World, Raipur Smart City quickly converted its ICCC into a 24x7 war room with a dedicated Citizen Distress Helpline for coordinated decision making by multiple departments and to address COVID-19 related citizen complaints. Implementation efforts from L&T Smart World have helped us reduce the response time to emergencies in these critical times.”
And Srinath Reddy, DSP, Telangana Police IT Cell, tells us ,“As Hyderabad is one of the largest cities in India with a population of over 10 million, it is resource-intensive to monitor such a huge area manually. So we have decided to leverage our extensive CCTV network in the city for monitoring. We have tasked L&T Smart World to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to implement vehicle restriction during lockdown, crowd detection, face mask detection and physical distancing solutions across the city. Thanks to the quick turnaround time from L&T Smart World, we were able to focus on enforcement efforts and awareness campaigns.”
The ICCCs also played a crucial role in healthcare support and management. With just minor tweaks, these hi-tech centres were able to support municipalities monitoring the process with just a single click. Within just a few days, cities switched functions to monitor COVID-19 affected quarantine facilities, provided free Wi-Fi facilities and support to quarantined people; and tracked the health of suspected patients and their contacts under home quarantine. Though the roads were relatively empty, the ICCCs also monitored roads and traffic through drones and propagated awareness messages through helplines.
Kunal Kumar, SCM Mission Director, in a piece co-authored with Jaideep Gupte, Research Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, has written that India’s response to COVID-19 now depends on the successful use of its smart cities investment. Indeed, slowing down the spread of the pandemic will require, among other things, heavy reliance on India’s data infrastructure, providing real-time data readings for critical and quick decision-making.
There have been heartening examples where citizens have used the platform for self-assessment with the information then being passed on to city authorities. And pin code-wise mapping has been done identifying high-risk people.
Let’s look a little closer at the segment-wise allocation (see Table 2 and Figure 1). Area-based development (ABD) commands the majority of funding and focuses on districts or communities within cities. It has been criticised for targeting already affluent areas and populations benefitting only 3-4 percent of the population. Even most initiatives part of the pan-city solution focus more on surveillance and control (CCTV, facial recognition, security systems, etc) rather than sanitation, infrastructure or environmental protection.
Table 2: Smart Cities’ Fund Allocation
SMART CITIES FUND ALLOCATION
Segment |
Amount (Rs Crore) |
% of Total |
Safety |
3690 |
1.84 |
Waste management |
4920 |
2.45 |
Social segment |
5125 |
2.55 |
Stormwater |
5125 |
2.55 |
Environment |
5330 |
2.65 |
Additionalothers |
7176 |
3.57 |
NMT and others |
8411 |
4.19 |
Water supply |
11276 |
5.61 |
Housing |
13121 |
6.53 |
IT/ ICT |
19147 |
9.53 |
Energy |
26707 |
13.30 |
Economic development |
26037 |
12.96 |
Area development |
30753 |
15.31 |
Urban transport |
34033 |
16.94 |
200851 |
Figure 1: Segment budget allocation in %
Opportunities ahead
A look at these numbers clearly indicates that the major focus has been on economic development, area development, including roads, and energy—allocation to healthcare has been less than 2 per cent of the over Rs 200,000 crore in smart city funding. As reported, only 69 out of over 5,000 projects in the SCM have been focused on health infrastructure and capacity building.
All considered, opportunities abound to make our smart cities not just future-friendly but pandemic-ready.
According to data and analytics company Global Data, despite delays in smart city projects owing to paucity of funds, smart cities like Agra, Chandigarh, Vadodara, Bengaluru and Kakinada have been able to effectively tap technologies like IoT/sensors, tele-healthcare, data and analytics to contribute significantly to India’s fight against COVID-19.
For instance, Agra Smart City launched a tele-video consultation service that allows citizens to book an appointment with healthcare professionals and even download online prescriptions from a dedicated website/app. Bengaluru and Kakinada Smart Cities have launched data dashboards to act as a single source for all pandemic-related action and measures, as well as data collection. And Varanasi has deployed drones to spray sanitiser around COVID-19-sensitive parts of the city.
Further, looking above and beyond COVID-19, the potential for smart cities to transform the quality of life of citizens is immense. As Y Srinivasa Rao, Director, m1 Homes, Bengaluru, points out, there are mega opportunities for stakeholders of smart city projects in areas like utilities; traffic and transportation; health services; security; governance; commerce; energy and water efficiency; visualisation of land usage; and tackling urban air pollution.
India Inc is taking note. For example, Tech Mahindra recently bagged a Rs 500 crore project from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), securing its largest smart city contract. This takes the company’s total smart city projects tally to six and the total contract value to Rs 1,000 crore. The comprehensive project is expected to cover aspects like smart surveillance, smart parking and traffic management as well as an ICCC and social media analytics.
Undoubtedly, the future is smart. And the present has only reinforced this fact. While it is still early to measure the level of success India’s smart cities have achieved in handling the COVID-19 crisis, they have certainly contributed to the country’s fightback through innovative use of technologies. Many experts in the field see parallels with the 2008 global financial crisis, which helped propel the first international wave of smart city projects. The economic crash and resultant government budget shortfalls created an impetus for cities to collaborate with technology firms to address urban problems and generate new sources of revenue. A COVID-19 recession could result in similar dynamics, with more PPPs or entirely private sector-driven initiatives entering the space.
Here are some examples:
A business unit of Larsen & Toubro, L&T Smart World has rolled out smart technology solutions to combat COVID-19 in over 20major cities across India, including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Prayagraj, Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad. These technologies are helping city administrations track patients, contain the spread of the virus, monitor quarantined people, control crowding, galvanise rescue efforts, spread COVID-19 related messages to people, and establish the rule of law in the current scenario.
The company has partnered with municipal and police agencies to setup technology and manage command and control centres and city operations centres. In fact, whenever India has faced a major calamity such as cyclone Fani in Odisha or needed to manage a mammoth congregation such as last year’s Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, L&T Smart World has been at the forefront, working closely with government authorities.
During the pandemic, AI-based video analytics like crowd detection have been deployed in existing city surveillance infrastructure; customised advisories issued from the command and control centres in coordination with municipal corporations and other stakeholders; messages propagated through public address systems(PAS) and variable message displays (VMD) deployed citywide in coordination with municipal corporations; mobile apps rolled out for surveys, SOS and tracking of affected citizens; and chatbots implemented for emergency or curfew pass systems for emergencies and essential services.
Here’s a state-wise rundown of L&T’s technology interventions to fight COVID-19:
Wipro Lighting has been a major player in the Indian lighting sector. Please tell us about the larger opportunity smart lighting has created in India.
In a smart city, smart street lights and poles fulfil many more functions than mere illumination. Street lighting poles can also serve as data stations with sensors for adaptive lighting, weather and pollution sensing and monitoring; enable Wi-Fi and RF connectivity; provide smart screens for ads and public address systems; monitor parking spaces; and recharge the batteries of an electric car. As cities grow, a security infrastructure of sensors and cameras can decrease the risk of any threat, accidental or intentional. Such a system can run directly over the centrally managed street lighting grid, making the city a better place to live in.
Lighting-based traffic control and management, parking space allocation and commute information can leverage the lighting platform and deliver an infrastructure-based solution for smart cities, thus providing an enhanced user experience for citizens. Centralised monitoring and control, easy and quicker maintenance, power savings, higher reliability and greater system efficiency are some of the facets of technology-based lighting solutions in smart cities. Being connected to a single network, the lighting system can provide concrete data on the amount of electricity consumed by each light on a broader level or even how much a phase consumes. This can help eliminate the problem of electricity theft and enable proactive maintenance as the leaks in a particular network can be readily discovered and necessary actions immediately taken.
Accurate switching times based on local sunset and sunrise with the aid of a photo-sensor or time-scheduled switches, increased flexibility of lighting, data management with the help of an energy consumption report, 24-hour online monitoring system (GIS), increased security with the help of CCTV cameras on poles and anti-theft alarms are intelligent features of a connected outdoor lighting system.
Please tell us about your association with Schréder and projects implemented through this association for smart cities and smart campuses.
Wipro is a design and technology leader in introducing well-designed, aesthetic, high-performance products to the Indian market. Our tie-up with Schréder is another step in the same direction. We are currently working on multiple projects from inception and design to implementation of various projects encompassing government and private entities. Wipro sees good opportunities in state-of-the-art, high-performance, technical urban lighting and smart outdoor solutions, including smart poles, with technological solutions from Schréder. Our aim of collaborating with Schréder is to bring their patented technology and products like smart streetlights and smart poles and expertise to empower smart cities in India and address the premium lighting requirements of an urban India. Schréder’s Lightability™ uses the power of light to improve cities significantly. This is one more offering on our Internet of Lighting (IoL)® platform and we are confident it can help derive the best outcomes and make our cities safe and smart.
Do you expect the demand from smart cities to improve further as and when unlocking of economic activity picks up pace, especially in real estate and infrastructure? If so, please guide us through market growth estimates for smart lighting in India going ahead.
Connected living is where citizens and government participate together to make the place intelligent, smart and safe. Very soon, LED lighting in your vicinity will become the principal infrastructure to provide smart technology and services for your city. We expect smart lighting demand to surge in the coming future as multiple projects are expected to get into the implementation phase. Demand is expected to be primarily generated by smart city corporations and ULBs (urban local bodies). However, we are also witnessing increased interest in smart outdoor lighting from the private sector for campuses, smart factories, townships and colonies. The fast-paced movement of projects in smart cities can further generate the demand for specialised lighting requirements in coming days.
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