India’s Smart Cities Get Primed To Fight Covid-19 With Tech Innovations

The Karnataka government, last week, launched a data dashboard Bengaluru Smart City Covid-19 War Room, which will act as a single source for all pandemic-related action and measures, as well as data collection.

The project will allow the government to keep a tab on those under quarantine and their contacts. Besides this, the platform will also keep a track of medical personnel on the ground and the hospitals — compiled in a city-wise and taluk-wise database. The data is currently being put together with a host of software and applications.

The availability of the Bengaluru Smart City COVID War Room was announced in a press statement issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Meanwhile, Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh has also set up a similar data dashboard, which displays district, state and country-level information.

The central government’s housing department has compiled the steps taken up by smart cities like Vadodara, Kalyan-Dombivali, Agra, Kakinada and Chandigarh to effectively tackle the Covid-19 solutions.

Agra Smart City Ltd, on the other hand, has also introduced a video teleconsultation facility for local residents. The telemedicine service has been developed in a public-private partnership (PPP) with Azael Manufacturing Private Limited.

The app and the website allows local residents to book appointments with a healthcare professional, who will be available from 10 AM to 12 PM from Monday to Saturday. Users can also download online prescriptions from the website or the app.

Agra Smart City is looking to open 10 smart health centres across the city. So far, the two bodies have only developed the first such centre. Meanwhile, the Agra city administration, in collaboration with Agra Smart City and Agra Police, is also relying on control rooms to monitor the situation across the state.

“The alerts are configured through an app on the field staff mobile phones and help the police administration on the ground. Agra lockdown monitor app will be available to all thana in-charges and any other police personnel as required,” the press note added.

Vadodara, Chandigarh Enhance Tech Capabilities

Vadodara in Gujarat has installed a helium balloon attached with cameras for surveillance on lockdown violators. The balloon also has a public address system attached to it. Besides this, the administration has divided the city into four zones — red, orange, yellow and green — as part of a strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

On the other hand, Chandigarh has installed a comprehensive ‘fight COVID’ station, which have several facilities like thermal screening, pedestal operated hand-wash and soap dispenser, mist spray of sodium hypochlorite solution and hand dryer facility.

Meanwhile, Kalyan Dombivali in Maharashtra has been reaching out to residents through awareness videos published on their social media handles. Besides this, the social media handles also schedules daily activities like Yoga, culinary art, aerobics, poetry and more between 7:00 am to 9:00 pm.

The Indian government is heavily deploying tech solutions to keep the Covid-19 pandemic from getting out of hand. The Aarogya Setu app was launched to contact trace people tested positive of Covid-19. Meanwhile, it as also launched an interactive voice response service (IVRS) with the government of Tamil Nadu for people with feature phones.

The government has also set up a committee to revamp the Aarogya Setu app and incorporate AI and machine learning tools. Meanwhile, NITI Aayog has also set up a committee to find healthtech solutions to keep India’s healthcare system future-ready if the situation were to get worse.