VISAKHAPATNAM: The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) will be giving the Smart City project a boost, digitally. To enhance its online profile, GVMC has decided to upgrade the existing Command and Control Centre (CCC), a system that will supply real-time information on the status of civic utilities in the city.
The information can be accessed by either browsing the GVMC website or over a smartphone app. Though Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had launched the Command and Control Centre in June last year, it has not fully served its purpose in terms of enabling real-time monitoring through supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) of water and power supply, beach surveillance, traffic management, pollution levels, weather and temperature with coordination with various departments.
A senior officer said that under the Smart City project, GVMC will spend Rs 175 crore on the CCC. Greater Visakha Smart City Corporation Limited (GVSCC) has invited bidders for Internet connections for the CCC from the service providers. “As part of the project, we will install over 500 CCTV cameras at 80 major junctions and another 60 at about 50 traffic signals to provide information on traffic movement or violations to the officer manning the feed at the CCC headquarters,” he said.
Besides updates on various services of the GVMC, the CCC will feature a disaster management module. The GVMC is looking for a suitable platform to integrate all the agencies involved in disaster management so that coordination is simplified and more effective, said another officer. GVMC commissioner M. Hari Narayanan said the Smart City projects will be implemented over a period of five years and they are giving priority to complete some of the major projects such as CCC and others.
