The hi-tech command and control centres across 45 smart cities have transformed overnight into the nerve centre for operations to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The command and control centres constructed under Smart City Mission have so far been used for various municipal functions, including 24-hour water supply projects, property tax collection, traffic management, street lighting, monitoring bus movement and CCTV for security. As SARS-CoV-2 hit India, these command and control centres have diversified.
Since these command centres have been planned more like hitech control rooms to see the functions of municipalities at the click of a button on several screens, all that was required was minor tweaking. Within a few days cities switched the functions to monitor quarantine facilities, provide free Wi-Fi facilities to quarantined people and give them support, track health of suspected patients and their contacts under home quarantine, monitoring the roads and traffic through drones and pushing awareness messages through the helplines.
Apart from this, all 100 smart cities have put forth their best ideas. Bengaluru, for instance, converted its command and control centre within 24 hours into Coronavirus War Room. This 24×7 centre has mapped each Covid-19 positive case using GIS, tracking health care workers using GPS and drawing up containment plans using heat mapping technologies.
At Tirupati, groceries and other essentials are being home delivered through the command centre. Ujjain has set up a call centre that has classified the calls into five categories: Type A are calls seeking information about what is Covid-19 and symptoms, Type-B are from people informing about a likely Covid-19 patient, Type-C is from a person who is apprehensive of an infection, Type-D are calls from people who are quarantined/isolated and want to know about their condition and Type-E: any other problem related calls, such as nonavailability of essential goods. According to sources, the Ministry of Housing and urban Affairs, the nodal ministry for 100 smart cities, has compiled a list of best practices. The innovative ideas to fight Covid-19 and develop tracking systems to ensure all suspected patients and contact lists are covered, would now be shared with urban development secretaries of all states
