IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Integrated Command and Communication Centre offers a platform for all services and grievances

The Integrated Command and Communication Centre being implemented as a part of the Smart City Mission touches the lives of citizens in more ways than one — in fact all important aspects of civic life.

In a bid to promote technical skills among the youth and make them industry-ready, the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Centre (APSSDC) has entered into an MoU with the Institute of Taxation and Accounting Professionals (iTAP).

The MoU was signed in the presence of Minister for Skill Development Kollu Ravindra and iTAP president R Venkateswara Rao at the inaugural session of a two-day national symposium ‘Smart Cities - Challenges and Opportunities’ began here on Friday.

Smart Cities provide an enhanced quality of living that drives economic growth benefiting all sections. It also promotes clean and sustainable environment, said J Nivas, joint collector of Visakhapatnam district. He said that the Smart Cities Mission was launched by the Central government to transform urban landscape, for the benefit of people from all the sectors.

Nivas was addressing ‘Smart India - A Conference on Smart Solutions for Smart Cities’, organised by the Andhra Pradesh Technology Development and Promotion Centre, established under the joint participation of the Indian government, the Andhra Pradesh government and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in Visakhapatnam Friday.

Vizag ranked eighth in the 20 cities selected in the first phase

Marking one year of Visakhapatnam being selected in the Smart City Challenge, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will formally launch e-governance in GVMC and Command and Control Centre (CCC) here on Saturday.

The Command and Control Centre will bring together various wings of GVMC as well as other departments like Revenue and Police on to it. The disaster management project of GVMC will also form part of the Rs.141 crore CCC.

The ABD area is around 6 sq.km while the total area of the city under Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) limits is almost 625 sq. km.

Though several developmental projects have been taken up in the city under smart city projects, a majority of them are concentrated within an area that covers less than 1 per cent of the total city limits. Moreover, the projects seem to be confined to an area that barely has about 4 per cent of the city population residing there.

It is aimed at promoting use of technology in rural areas.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu stated that the AP government was promoting innovation centres to turn Amaravati into a research hub. He was speaking at the open innovation hackathon building on Smart Villages at KL University in Guntur district on Thursday.

Kishan Reddy is all praise for the GVMC’s City Operations Centre

Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy visited the City Operations Centre of the GVMC on Wednesday and was all praise for the project.

The Minister assured that adequate funds would be released by the Centre for the ‘Smart City’ projects. “In addition to the ₹400 crore already released, an additional ₹100 crore would be released soon for the ‘Smart City’ projects,” Mr. G. Kishan Reddy said.

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation completed arrangements for the inauguration of Command Control Centre. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will inaugurate the centre on February 26. Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao on Friday visited the centre and reviewed the arrangements.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that the Command Control Centre is one of the Smart City project works and equipped with the latest information technology and software. The centre was well equipped with cohesive system of computers that would track real-time motion progress of the city and it would be helpful to provide real time governance.

The Arunachal Pradesh government inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Smart Village Movement (SVM) to facilitate relevant technology innovations, R&D, open innovation, technology interventions and curriculum development in select villages of the state.

The MoU was signed on Wednesday by Director-cum-Member Secretary of the State Council for IT & e-Governance, Neelam Yapin Tana on behalf of the state government and Shreya Evani, Project Director, Smart Village Movement University of California, Berkeley trained Core Team will focus on large-enterprise innovations, paying particular attention to implementation issues and development of new business models to capture the value of innovative products and services.

Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Pasighat Smart City is being prepared now, under the mission, in a bid to boost the cities renovation.

Work to convert Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh into a smart city is picking up pace with the detailed project reports of the projects under the mission.

Works on Pasighat Smart City in Arunachal Pradesh is getting momentum with the detailed project report (DPRs) of the projects under the mission is under preparation.

Pasighat, the centurion town in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh was included in the third smart cities list by the Centre in June 23, 2017 and the statement and guidelines have been framed for Smart City Mission.

The High Powered Steering Committee (HPSC) on Smart City Mission, Pasighat chaired by Arunachal Chief Secretary Ramesh Negi here on Wednesday approved in principle the Smart City plan for Pasighat.

The State Government will submit the finally approved report to the Union Ministry of Urban Development before December 15 next.

The Pasighat Smart City Project will be implemented by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) headed by a CEO after its selection in top 20.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) for Itanagar and Pasighat Smart City through digital platform (remote control) from New Delhi.

At Itanagar, the foundation stone laying ceremony for Smart City ICC centre was organized at Dorjee Khandu Hall, Legislative Assembly and was attended by Home Minister Kumar Waii, among others.

In a view to boost the security and surveillance mechanism of Guwahati, the Govt of Assam has approved of installing 4,000 CCTV cameras to continuously monitor the pulse of Guwahati city.

Of the 4,000 cameras, around 800 would be dedicated for monitoring vehicular traffic, especially road mishaps and hit-and-run cases.

There is no universally accepted definition of a smart city. According to the GOI Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) Smart City Mission: “In the imagination of any city dweller in India, the picture of a smart city contains a wish list of infrastructure and services that describes his or her level of aspiration. To provide for the aspirations and needs of the citizens, urban planners ideally aim at developing the entire urban eco-system, which is represented by the four pillars of comprehensive development— institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure. This can be a long term goal and cities can work towards developing such comprehensive infrastructure incrementally, adding on layers of ‘smartness’.”

On 28 January 2016, Guwahati with rank of 17th and a score of 57.66 % made it to the first list of 20 cities of India selected by the Union Government to be developed as “smart cities”. It is envisaged that Rs. 50,820 crores will be invested in the next five years to develop these cities. The cities selected will also mobilize resources by forming special purpose vehicle (SPV) with public-private partnership (PPP). The MoUD used the “Challenge” or competition method to select cities for funding and using a strategy of area-based development. The idea of this competition is to capture the spirit of “competitive and cooperative federalism”. To participate in the “City Challenge”, Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) roped in New Delhi based public sector consultancy firm Wapcos Ltd. in association with Oasis Design Inc. to prepare the final proposal.

Niti Aayog, in the draft of its 3-year action plan, has suggested steps such as creating adequate living and office space, preventing slum creation, building new cities for increased urbanisation and improved quality of urban life

Recognising urbanisation as an integral part of economic development in the country, government think-tank Niti Aayog, in the draft of its three-year action plan, has suggested a number of actionable points for the Centre and the states to facilitate this facet of economic transformation. These points include key deliverables for programmes such as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Smart Cities Mission, and promotion of efficient and sustainable public transport.

Eighteen of the 75 wards of (PMC) have been declared open defecation free in the last one year, said mayor while presenting the annual report card of the civic body on Friday.

Sahu, who completed one year in office as mayor on June 19, said the PMC proposed several proactive schemes in the past one year to improve the overall condition of the city, but least of them were implemented properly. “I am yet not satisfied with my work. There is a lot I am focusing on. There are several schemes we are now prioritizing to work on and one of them is smart city plan. We are working in full swing for the implementation of and the work will be visible on the ground from October,” she said.

Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL) has commenced e-governance project, in order to provide 27 online citizen services in the city.

The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for Chandigarh Smart City project has signed an agreement with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for the implementation of e-governance services. The project is planned towards completion within a year. The project aims to minimise manual intervention, ensure transparency, 24×7 access to online citizen services and public grievances by eliminating the need of visiting the Government offices.

City residents want technology-based government services and want the administration to introduce e-governance at all levels in the city. Among the city residents who voted for ‘Smart City’ solutions, majority (68%) want introduction of e-governance — technology-based citizen services. Of the 21,759 residents who voted, as many as 14,804 wanted online delivery of citizen services.

The second priority residents gave to use of technology for better security of citizens for which 16% (3,401votes) were polled. 3,285 residents (15% of total votes) wanted integrated public transport and smart traffic management solutions.

All civic services to go online; tenders invited for the project

For the convenience of residents, e-governance will be introduced in the city, making all civic services such as fire NOC, booking of community halls, birth and death certificate and building plan approval available online.

This was informed at a meeting chaired by Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore.