How technology infrastructure of Smart cities is repurposed for containing COVID-19

Express Computer has been doing comprehensive coverage of how State Governments are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic by using digital tools and technologies. In today’s edition, we have covered Kerala’s anti fake news division and How Himachal Pradesh has developed COVID-19 combat applications in no time

The smart city mission was announced a few years back and many smart cities have built advanced Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCC), the backbone for managing the technology enabled infrastructure of the city. The same infrastructure is now being used to rally resources and support the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Express Computer has covered the Bhopal Smart City initiative. The below smart cities have also engaged the resources of the ICCC to manage the COVID-19 crises.

Vadodara
The Vadodara district administration has installed a helium balloon attached with two cameras for surveillance on lockdown violators. The balloon, installed in the Tandalja area, also has a public address system attached to it. The administration has divided the city into four zones, red, orange, yellow and green as part of a strategy to deal with the corona virus pandemic.

Bengaluru
Model COVID-19 War Room at Bengaluru – Covid-19 data dashboard of Karnataka has been inaugurated by State Minister for Medical Education on 7 April 2020 at Bengaluru Smart City COVID War Room. This dashboard will be the single source of all COVID-related data which includes people under quarantine, their contacts, medical personnel on ground, hospitals, taluk-wise & City-wise data & beyond. This real-time data is being put together with a host of software and applications

Kalyan Dombivali
To create awareness and keep citizens informed about Corona, awareness videos are published on KDMC Face book page. To constantly keep citizens engaged, the Face book page has published a daily routine of activities has been designed from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. The city has identified local experts from different fields such as Yoga, Culinary Art, Aerobics, music, poetry, ghazal, kathak and Bharatanatyam, philosophy and allotted time slots to each of them, in which they come live in Face book Page of KDMC during scheduled time slots. This initiative is receiving huge response and appreciation from citizens.

Agra
E-Doctor Seva is a tele-video consultation facility, launched by Agra Smart City Ltd for local population. https://tinyurl.com/edoctorapp. It is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative of Agra Smart City Limited. Consultation facility will be available from 10 am to 12.00 pm (Monday to Saturday).For consultations, citizens will have to log in using the link (https://tinyurl.com/edoctorapp ) and schedule an appointment with the doctor.

Appointments can be taken using the mobile app. App can be downloaded by any Android phone (play store) users by clicking the link below:
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.needstreet.health.hppatient).

Once appointment is taken through the site/app a particular date and time will be allocated for the consultation. The patient can have a tele/video call with the doctor at the scheduled time. After consultation, online prescription can also be downloaded by patient from the site/app. On request, required medicines will be delivered at home from the Smart Health Centre-Pharmacy.

• This noble and innovative initiative is taken by Agra Smart City in association with its PPP partner Azael Manufacturing Private Limited. They are also in the process of opening 10 Smart Health Centers in Agra for providing affordable and holistic healthcare services to local masses. One such centre is already operational and serving the local population.

• Smart Health Centers established under Smart City scheme help in spreading awareness about various Do & Don’ts of Corona ,each patient is given a 3-5 min briefing on the advisory regarding Corona for both the general consultation as well as at the dental clinic. 325 patients took consultation in March and 675 patients in February. 1015 sanitizers and 935 masks were distributed at subsidized rates through the pharmacy at smart health center which provided a great relief to the people.

• Agra Administration in association with Agra Smart City & Agra Police is making full use of ICCC Control Room established by Agra Smart City Limited at Nagar Nigam Agra. Agra Lock down Monitoring App has been launched. This innovative video surveillance solution will be made use to effectively monitor the various locations in Agra city to manage the crowd and fight COVID 19. The latest in this effort is the AI based Analytics, the first of its kind combat COVID 19 in Agra. The latest ground-breaking technology adopted by Agra Administration is provided by the existing Surveillance vendor under CSR initiative. An alert is instantly generated to help the authorities to strictly maintain social distancing in Agra. The alerts are configured through an App on the field staff Mobile phones and help the Police Administration on ground. Agra lockdown monitor App will be available to all thana in-charges and any other police personnel as required.

• Along with district administration, cooked food bank has been established which collect cooked food packets from various NGOs and it is been distributed to needy, destitute and labourers etc., 5000 food packets has been distributed.

Kakinada
COVID-19 data dashboard developed in Kakinada ICCC. Kakinada, district, state and country level information is being displayed in the ICCC. The details can be accessed at https://covid19.kkdeservices.com:2278.

Chandigarh
Chandigarh has installed a comprehensive ‘fight COVID station’ with facilities of thermal screening by taking temperature, pedestal operated hand-wash and soap dispenser, mist spray of sodium hypochlorite solution and hand dryer facility. It has been installed at the Main Mandi sector-25, Chandigarh by Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh and all visitors to Mandi are expected to pass through the station.

If you have an interesting article / experience / case study to share, please get in touch with us at [email protected]

Advertisement