Raipur is one of the top 10 Smart City projects under the Smart City Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. Our objective is to implement sustainable city planning strategy without compromising on the tradition or grassroots, says Shiv Anant Tayal, Commissioner, Raipur Municipal Corporation and CEO, Raipur Smart City Limited in this exclusive interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).
What is your idea of Smart City?
Most of us have the vision that a smart city means a modern city with updated infrastructure, highways and roads and transport system. While these features are indeed part of smart city, for me, an ideal smart city refers to a sustainable ecosystem. We have to assure that we conserve our environment, manage our waste properly in terms of collection, segregation and disposal, conservation of water and smart drainage. Last but not the least, smart utilisation of land resources is the primary for smart city.
What is your vision for the Raipur Smart City project?
Raipur is one of the top 10 Smart City projects under the Smart City Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. Our vision is in sync with that of the vision of our honourable Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel, which is ‘Narwa, Garuwa, Ghurwa, and Baadi’. While Narwa refers to rivulets and streams, Gauwa means livestock, Ghurwa is compost and Baadi is cultivation. The objective is to implement sustainable city planning strategy without compromising on the tradition or grassroots. The projects laid down by the Raipur Smart City Limited (RSCL), the Special Public Vehicle (SPV) of the city is to strengthen the roots while apply innovative measures for urbanisation.
What are the technological innovations brought by RSCL?
Some of the new and innovative projects initiated by RSCL include Smart Payment System, Smart Underground Waste Management System, utilising drone technology for Stereo image acquisition to prepare a Base Map to name a few.
“Some of the new and innovative projects initiated by RSCL include Smart Payment System, Smart Underground Waste Management System, utilising drone technology for Stereo image acquisition to prepare a Base Map to name a few.”
Please shed some light on these projects.
As far as the Smart Payment is concerned, is one of the project envisaged under Pan City Solutions of RSCL. The RCSPS project plans to implement Open Loop based Smart Card project, City Mobile App, Mobile Wallet and Portal with an aim to offer citizens a common platform of payment facility which would enable them to pay for any services within the city.
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The ‘Smart Fully underground Waste Collection Bin System’ refers to underground Waste collection and monitoring and tracking system to monitor collection of waste, vehicles movement and maintenance etc. Within this, waste containers are replaced by fully underground collection bins. These bins are placed fully underground, having only their inlets above ground surface.
We intend to do a Drone based survey for Stereo image acquisition to prepare a Base Map. With Drone based Survey, multiple other utility services can also be covered like Tree Census, Building Change Detection Using Remote Sensing and GIS, Identification of water bodies in Municipal limits and Catchment area, Road and Footpath with Encroachment area, Parking Places, Water ATMs etc.
The overall goal of this project is to geo-enable and to automate the various functions of RSCL and Raipur Municipal Corporation.
What are the plans to manage traffic in the city? Has RSCL implemented ITMS?
Yes, we have implemented ITMS in Raipur. The features include intelligent traffic signals, surveillance cameras, red light violation detection system, emergency call box, smart poles to name a few. This project will benefit the citizens of Raipur by decreasing the average travel time by 25 percent, smart parking and improving law and order situation.
What are the steps to ensure safety among the citizens?
To ensure safety of the citizens, we have launched Integrated Command & Control Centre (ICCC) at Raipur. CCTV cameras are installed across the city and these cameras are monitored in real-time through the ICCC and are equipped with various video analytics features.