Safe Smart City Conference brought out essentiality of ICCCs on city’s security

NEW DELHI: The Safe Smart City Conference was held, on July 19, at the Hotel Lalit in Delhi. The major theme of the conference was to discuss on the methodologies that could be employed to develop safe smart cities by utilising resources at Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC). The conference witnessed participation of several speakers and delegates from many government and private organisations working in the domain.

Srinivasan, Partner, Smart Cities, Ernest and Young (EY),  shared his thoughts on the development of smart cities in India. He explained the idea of smart cities is to do more for less for the citizens. Being responsible for cities, developing infrastructure and designing smart tools for citizen utilisation are some of the other ideas that are associated with the smart cities.Swaying into the challenges smart cities face now, he said, “We need smart people, that is,  behavioral changes of citizens is necessary. People have to be more responsible.”For this, data management should be more efficiently looked into. Careful examination of urban movement is essential to identify the needs of the citizens. Integrated command and control centers (ICCCs) need to be the analysts for the city decision makers for smooth operation in the future.

Avni Gupta, deputy director (Smart Cities Division), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), highlighted the progress made by the ministry’s Smart Cities Mission. She said that the ministry has launched significant urban reform policies. Some of these policies that have been introduced in recent years are SwachhBharatAbhiyan, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), and Housing for all. Smart CitiesMission aims to develop economic opportunities for people and also increase sustainability of the cities. 

Highlighting how development could be gauged in a smart city, she said that the concept is subjective to the city we are talking about. Some cities might require better skill development project and some might require a boost to the heritage sights of the city. To overcome this hurdle, the ministry has developed some tools to assess the progress of the mission. Ease of Living index is one such example which gauges people’s satisfaction with their cities. City level income assesses the city level GDP, to know the income distribution of a city. Climate smart cities framework rates cities on their environmental sustainability. Vishwaranjan Gupta, independent director, NDMC Smart City, shared his practical experience in the skill development centers in New Delhi under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)Kendra. These centers can train 4000 people simultaneously, primarily for the employment in the health sector.

Shailesh Kumar Aggarwal, executive director, BMTPC, spoke on disaster mitigation management in India. It is an integral part of the smart city mission. 

Increasing urbanisation and expansion of cities in vulnerable areas has led to a higher losses of life and property at the time of a natural disaster. The government has launched Disaster Management Act, 2005, which sees zero tolerance towards loss of life from such calamities and ensures a proactive approach to disaster mitigation management, said Shailesh. He further discussed the third edition of vulnerability atlas of India, which was released by the PM in 2019.

JK Sharma, Lt Gen, discussed aboutthe initiatives that the government had undertaken to better manage the Kumbh Mela, saying that it was a shining example of how public events and spaces can be better managed. Later in the day, a panel discussion was also organised to brainstorm on the benefits and the limitations of the ICCCsunder smart cities. The convener Ajay Gupta, Global Head, Smart city- Tech Mahindra, said that these centers are the brains of smart cities as they are the center of the decision making in a city.

Cdr Jasbir Singh, Mahindra Defence, said that the ICCCs are essential for maintaining a high level of security in a city. He further detailed on the problems faced in implementing these centers in India.

Sandeep Sinha, Director, MitKat Advisory, said that the centralisation of the command is essential as urbanisation continues to grow, which is exactly ICCC is tasked with. These centers give us a great deal of data fusion, which give us the leverage to take efficient decisions for the city, which will definitely prevent disasters like 26/11 in future.

Vishal Gupta from Ajeevi Smart City Technologies, said that the implementation of smart cities by itself isn’t enough, continuous guiding is essential for the initiative to grow. This guidance can be adequately provided through the ICCCs. Educating the associated departments is necessary.

“If any city is smart, it must be safe,” said Mahip Tejaswi, CEO, Smart City Gwalior, who defined the smart cities as a city with exceptionally low environmental problems, crimes, accidents etc. “We are looking to develop ways to ensure a sound infrastructure in the city so that the above could be a reality,” he added.

Davinder Kasal, Head of Security, HCL, said that ICCCs are essential to efficiently analyze the severity of vulnerabilities of the city, prioritise them and manage them accordingly.

The moderator concluded the session by saying that the ICCCs will continue to evolve but the scope of optimisation is vast as of now.

The conference ended on a high note with laying down essential points on the completion of the existing smart city projects and developing robust ICCC for better city management.