Smart Cities Command Centres | 07 Apr 2020

Why in News

Recently, municipalities have started using their Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) as war rooms for Covid-19 response under the Smart Cities Mission.

Key Points

• Of the 100 municipalities in the Smart Cities Mission, the ICCCs of 45 cities are online or operational.
• The ICCCs set up under the Mission are meant to coordinate traffic management, surveillance, utilities and grievance redressal.
  
  • Now, they are being used to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
• As Covid-19 war rooms, the ICCCs are implementing initiatives such as:
  
  • CCTV surveillance of public places.
  • GIS mapping of Covid-positive cases.
  • GPS tracking of healthcare workers
  • Predictive analytics (heat maps) for virus containment across different zones of the city.
  • Virtual training to doctors and healthcare professionals.
  • Real-time tracking of ambulances and disinfection services.
  • Providing medical services through video-conferencing, tele-counselling and tele-medicine.

Smart City Mission

• It is an innovative initiative under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens.
• Objective: To promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of Smart Solutions.
• Focus: On sustainable and inclusive development and to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a lighthouse to other aspiring cities.
• Strategy:
  
  • Pan-city initiative in which at least one Smart Solution is applied city-wide.
  • Develop areas step-by-step with the help of these three models:
    
    • Retrofitting.
    • Redevelopment.
    • Greenfield.
• Coverage and Duration: The Mission covers 100 cities for the duration of five years starting from the financial year (FY) 2015-16 to 2019-20.
• Financing: It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.

Source: TH