Popularly known earlier as the ‘Manchester of Karnataka’, Davanagere is part of the Phase 1 cities of the Smart City Mission. With achievements such as the Award of Excellence in Urban Transport and the Vivekananda Sustainability Award under its belt, the smart city SPV has been implementing ICT-related initiatives to make the citizens of the entire city feel inclusive. Veereshakumar, IAS, Managing Director & CEO, Davanagere Smart City Ltd (DSCL), shares more in a conversation with SNEHA IYER. Davanagere Smart City recently bagged the ‘Award of Excellence in Urban Transport’ from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Tell us about the initiatives taken by the city that contributed to this success. We won the award for the successfulimplementation and monitoring of traffic junctions through CCTV cameras and generating e-challans by the police department.Public messages are announced through 40 PAS to achieve lane discipline in traffic junctions. Through this, we have been able to reduce accident rates drastically. By using CCTV footage and nine video analytics features,authorities are solving several cases within a matter of hours. We have been able to make the city safer and reduced mortality rates. We have also installed digital display boards and VaMS boards to display precautionary messages about traffic and crime violations from the police. The city has set a precedent for urban infrastructure. Please elaborate on the efforts taken towards infrastructure in the areas of surveillance systems, traffic analytics, e-governance and solid waste management. Most of the city is covered by surveillance cameras. There are 213 cameras,which are a combination of PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) and fixed cameras at 109 locations. These cameras are monitored exclusively by the police department at a dedicated police command-and-control centre...To read the full interaction, CLICK HERE.