Nava Raipur Atal Nagar has now developed into a world class city with state-of-the-art infrastructure as well as bringing in social cohesion and local inclusiveness. Today, Nava Raipur stands as a role model for other emerging capital cities, says Neelam Namdev Ekka, Chief Executive Officer, Nava Raipur Atal Nagar Vikas Pradhikaran (NRANVP) in an exclusive interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). Ekka talks about the various ongoing projects at Raipur.
Tell us about the scope of work and size of the area mandated under the Smart City Mission in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar. What recent initiatives have been undertaken by Nava Raipur Atal Nagar Vikas Pradhikaran?
Under the Smart City Mission, Nava Raipur’s Smart City proposal was ranked second when it participated in the third round. The projects in smart city mission are divided in to two categories. PAN City and Area Based Development (ABD). PAN City projects are such which have an impact on entire city. Primarily IT projects, solid waste management, solar projects come under this category. Nava Raipur considers its entire Layer-1 area i.e. 80 sq. kms as pan city.
For ABD, primarily infrastructure projects are selected. The area selected under this category becomes the role model for the remaining city and successful projects in this area can then be replicated in the remaining city later. This means the area becomes the epicenter of all development work. For Nava Raipur Atal Nagar, an area of 1,300 Acres which includes the central CBD and capitol Complex, Sector 17, part 19, 20 and 21 were selected for the area-based development.
How are you utilising Information Technology to make Nava Raipur Atal Nagar smart?
Nava Raipur Atal Nagar has now developed into a world class city with state-ofthe- art infrastructure as well as bringing in social cohesion and local inclusiveness. Today, Nava Raipur stands as a role model for other emerging capital cities. Even before the Smart City Mission was launched, Nava Raipur Atal Nagar understood the importance of Information Technology. The infrastructure laid was made ICT ready. Later smart city systems project was initiated in year 2015 when consultants were hired to design the ICT roadmap of the city. This roadmap was then reviewed evaluated and modified by city officials. Based on this roadmap Nava Raipur has now become the benchmark for all smart cities across nation by completing first of its kind integrated Smart city project having the following components:
- Smart Governance
- Utility Management (Water and Electricity)
- City Surveillance
- Intelligent Transport Management System
- City Connectivity & IT Infra (Data Centre)
- Intelligent Building Management System
- Integrated Command & Control Centre
Please elaborate the project progress of Integrated Command and Control centre (ICCC), ITMS and SCADA etc.
Below are the details of all components of the smart city systems project:
1. Smart Governance (Application) including Common Portal
It provides citizens, a single window access to all NRANVP services through a common portal within the convenience of one’s home without the need of visiting NRANVP office. Citizens get improved Service Levels. This includes all front office and back office operations of the development authority. Right from land allocation to building permission on that land to availing NOC to apply for water connection to paying water charges or lease can be availed through this portal & mobile app. Citizens can register complaints and grievances through web portal, mobile app and helpdesk. Also, the operations like Finance, HR, asset management, file movement, meeting management, legal cases are all managed through this digital platform.
2. City Surveillance
High end surveillance cameras have been installed at strategic locations across Nava Raipur and at indoor location across Paryavaas Bhawan and ICCC, these cameras are monitored in real-time through the integrated command and control center and are equipped with various video analytics features. In view of the safety of commuters at the BRTS transit shelters, all the existing cameras at the shelters have also been integrated to command and control centre
3. Water Utility Management System
The SCADA based system is centrally monitored and controls water supply and distribution system of Nava Raipur. It generates alarms to city managers and field technicians in case of deviation from threshold values. As of now, the scope is right from our raw water source at Mahanadi River up to Sector level. The system is capable enough to scale up and include more sectors as the city population increases. The system shall allow remotely assessing and deciding the flow of water supplied to households through control of valves and pumps. It shall help in monitoring the flow, pressure and quality of water supplied to the citizens right from source till sector level. This results in safe and pressurized 24*7 water supply to citizens.
4. Electrical Utility Management System
The SCADA based system is capable of monitoring five substations in the city as per current population. The main idea is centralised monitoring of key parameters like voltage and control of distribution line from 132 KV substation to 33/11 KV substations and distribution transformers at sectors which finally provides power to the households. Atal Nagar electrical distribution network is based on ring main unit model. In case of outage, the system can supply the power through alternate line remotely from the ICCC. This would enable uninterrupted electrical supply and ensure that the citizen household appliances are also protected from voltage fluctuations.
5. Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS)
Automatic number plate recognition system has been deployed across key entry/exit points of Nava Raipur and speed detection system has been deployed at 10 strategic locations across Nava Raipur. Both these systems are seamlessly integrated to the ICCC and provide real time alerts in an event of an over speeding vehicle (moving above the allowed speed limit) and in an event of hot listed vehicle being detected. Both the systems will be integrated to the e-challan system.
6. Integrated Command and Control Centers (ICCC)
An integrated command and control centre has been setup for monitoring and controlling of all systems discussed above in one platform. ICCC is the centralised hub of integration for various components envisaged under the Atal Nagar Smart City System. It acts as single roof for all the data capturing, processing, consolidation reporting, monitoring and control. Teams of various stakeholders shall operate on their respective areas from ICCC. The integrated GIS based Command and Control Centre (CCC) comprises of workstations, video wall, CCC Application, Contact Centre etc. to manage city operations.
7. Smart Network and other networking
In order to meet the smart city network requirements, a robust and resilient captive fiber network of almost 120 kms is laid at pan city level. At remote locations, wireless communication via GPRS has been utilised.
8. Smart Building Management
Intelligent Building Management System has been installed and configured for Paryavas Bhawan (Atal Nagar office) and Integrated Command and Control Building which shall monitor the building’s mechanical and electrical equipment such as ventilation, lighting, power systems, fire systems and security systems.
What projects have been implemented by NRANVP in Public Private Partnership (PPP) model?
NRANVP has done public bike sharing project in PPP model. A network of 130 smart docks spread across 10 locations in the city. Using the State-of-the-art technology, citizens can benefit by availing the cycle facilities docked across 10 locations at a very nominal rate.
About 55 kilometers ‘Cycle Track’ has been laid at Nava Raipur. The cycles are equipped with GPS tracking system and will be monitored from the Control Room in future. The cycles can be hired by payments via App, Smart card, Log-in-Pin and Mobile phone. Identity Card proof has to be provided. Company will verify the cards. The programme will encourage cycling in the city due to its low-hiring charges. It will save costs and conserve environment also.
What new projects are in pipeline in the near future?
All the projects of Smart City mission are aligned to two vision elements: namely happiness and vibrancy which are aligned to strategic pillars of the city. Our new projects are more aligned to social sector and all-round development of the city. Few of the main projects being: Smart Village, Smart Education, Smart Health, multimodal transit hub, Solar City etc. We are currently in process of hiring project management consultant for these projects. Once on boarded, they will design the projects with based on funds available and technical feasibility followed by implementation of the projects.