The City of Culture on course to becoming truly ‘Smart’ – Anil Garg, Chairman, Lucknow Smart City Limited

Anil GargThanks to a number of path-breaking initiatives under implementation, the historic City of Lucknow is marching ahead to soon become a truly ‘Smart’ city, says Anil Garg, Divisional Commissioner, Lucknow and Chairman, Lucknow Smart City Limited, in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).

Give us an overview of the ‘smart’ projects undertaken by the Lucknow Smart City Limited.

Lucknow Smart City Limited is extending its citizen centric services through various delivery channels. We are implementing Integrated Command and Control Centre to integrate various smart citizen centric solutions. This system will integrate all city specific IT-enabled services. Integrated Central Command & Control Centre is under construction on the B.N road and the Master System Integrator (MSI) project has been awarded to M/s Fluentgrid in consortium with M/s BEL. Integration of services like UP 100, The Women Power Line 1090, Drishti etc, along with existing and proposed ICT Systems and Utility will also be done under this project.

The gestation period for this project is approximately 8 months. Close monitoring by Lucknow Smart City CEO and the PMC will be the key to the success of this project. Across ABD area, in six parks of Nagar Nigam, installation of Wi-Fi hotspots has been executed for providing free Wi-Fi services to the citizens. Underground distribution cabling & relocation of transformers has been done by the DISCOM in the Hazaratganj area. Upgradation of the substation in Kaiserbagh for SCADA system has been done. New transformers in Kaiserbagh area have also been installed. SCADA system for whole city of Lucknow is under consideration in collaboration with the Madhyanchal DISCOM.

Under our ‘Solid Waste Management – GPS & ICT for user charge collection’ project, Smart Community bins are being set up. Under this, door to door collection has been started in 107 wards. 100 per cent coverage has been achieved in 76 wards. Mobile Compact Stations have been installed at 30 locations across the city. This work is being done in the PPP mode in collaboration with M/c Eco Green Private Limited and Lucknow Nagar Nigam. Waste to power plant at a cost of Rs 300 crores is under construction in this project. Waste to energy pellets and tilizers has already commenced.

Solar Power plant in the PPP mode has already been installed at the Avanti Bai Hospital. This will reduce the electricity bills of the hospital in a big way. Waste water reuse systems are being installed in Balrampur hospital and Awanti Bai Hospital in the PPP mode. These will be local STP plants dedicated for the hospitals concerned. Smart roads and turnarounds works are being worked out by Institute of Urban Transport in collaboration with Municipal Corporation. Tender for Smart road for Daliganj is under process by Nagar Nigam. Smart roads, utility duct is being also done in three metro station areas in the ABD and near ABD area in collaboration with Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC). Smart bus shelter project has been awarded to the M/s Ozone Overseas Private Limited.

The work has started with the identification of locations by Nagar Nigam, city bus service and traffic Police officials. GPS instruments have been installed in the city buses for the Vehicle Tracking System (VTS). Two more electric crematoriums are being given to the city under 14th Finance commission, one at Baikunth Dham and the other at Gulaila ghat.

Tell us a bit about the Smart City Surveillance Project.

This is one of the flagship projects, which is executed by Lucknow Smart City Limited. M/s Technosys Security System Pvt Ltd has been selected for implementing the Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) project. Salient features of ITMS include Adaptive Traffic Control System (ATCS), Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system, Red Light Violation Detection (RLVD) system, Speed Violation Detection (SVD) system, No Helmet Detection and Triple Riding Detection etc.

The RFP for this project was made under the able guidance of ADG Lucknow Shri Rajiv Krishna. At present, the ‘DRISHTI’ surveillance project which has a total of 80 IP CCTV, Automatic Number Plate Recognition System (ANPR), Video Analytics, Mobile Surveillance System, Command Control Centre and Data Centre has proved to be very useful in curbing crimes in the city. At present, the project covers 70 junctions in Lucknow, with a dedicated focus on entry and exit points in the city, VVIP areas, and all critical and sensitive hotspots. Going forward with the ITMS project plans are in the offing to increase the number of cameras for the command system which will cover the whole city of Lucknow.

This project will be also collaborating with the ‘Safe City initiative’ project which has been sanctioned for the district Lucknow by the Ministry of Home, Government of India.

Lucknow Smart City LimitedHow are you planning to develop Kaiserbagh area of Lucknow city in a new way?

With a view to preserve the rich heritage of the ABD area of Kaiserbagh, a number of projects are being implemented. The key components for retrofitting Kaiserbagh area include utility improvement, smart grid and infrastructure development for slums and urban poor. Work on building roads, community toilets, night shelters in the slums has been started by the Nagar Nigam.

Under this scheme, there are also plans to cover nullahs (open drains), strengthen and augment the existing drainage network under the dovetailing with AMRUT. For water supply, we aim to strengthen and augment the distribution network, increase use of smart metering, and use Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). UP Jal Nigam is doing this project worth 40 crores of water supply in the ABD area.

For improving the sewer network of Kaiserbagh area, project of worth around Rs 300 crores is being implemented by the UP Jal Nigam. Piped Natural Gas (PNG) supply work is being implemented in the Kaiserbagh area by the Green Gas Limited. They have started the work of survey after getting the NOC from Nagar Nigam as per the enabling government order in this regard. The work of preserving and utilizing the heritage buildings of this ABD area like Chattar Manzil, Roshan Ud Dolah Kothi, Kothi Gulestaan-e-eram and Darshan Vilas Kothi has been given to INTACH. MoU has been signed with INTACH to give the concept work and develop it further as the implementing agency after getting due approvals from the state culture department. For electricity in the ABD area, much work has been to improve underground distribution cabling and relocate

transformers, and at the same time increase the use of smart metering by the MVVNL DISCOM. Further SCADA system in collaboration with MVVNL discom is under consideration.

What challenges do you experience in implementing the smart city projects and how do deal with multiplicity of organizations/ departments?

The projects envisaged as part of Smart City Project require funding and approval from state and other sources, hence better coordination among various departments like Health, Transport, Development Authority, State Archeological Directorate and PWD is vital to the success of plan implementation. Citizens’ participation is a pre-requisite for the success of smart city projects. Role of CEO smart city and the PMC is most important for the successful execution of the various projects which have started. Regular monitoring, day to day basis interaction with the various stakeholder departments and the citizens will be the key to the final success of this project.

What are the unique features of Common Mobility Card introduced for Lucknow Metro?

Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) and Lucknow Nagar Nigam (LNN) joined hands by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for facilitation of payment of house/property taxes through ‘GoSmart’ card of Lucknow Metro at Metro Stations. The main objective is to propagate the idea of smart travel for which LMRC is making every possible effort for facilitation of additional customer services for the benefit and convenience of the Metro commuters. LMRC will facilitate the collection of tax payments of Nagar Nigam from its customers at its Metro Stations which will enable passengers to use their “GoSmart Card” to make payments for the property tax at ticket counters. LMRC will then forward the collections along with information to the Lucknow Nagar Nigam.

How do you visualise the role of PPP in the city’s development?

Thanks to the role played by the private sector in the city’s development, today’s Lucknow, in many ways, is a smart city in the making, with its rapidly growing physical infrastructure like the new international airport in the making, flyovers, upcoming metro rail, IT parks, sports stadiums, real estate development and growing social infrastructure such as state of the art hospitals and educational institutions. In a bid to further accelerate the city’s development and to fully harness the utility of Private sector in executing various citizen-centric initiatives, we have promoted publicprivate partnerships in many sectors such as Public Bike Sharing project, is being executed by M/s Zoom Car Pvt Ltd. on a pilot-basis in Gomti Nagar. Energy Efficient Street Lighting Project has been awarded to EESL on PPP mode. Waste water reuse, solar power plant is also being done in PPP model. Smart bus shelter is another project in this category.

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