Smart cities staring at financial crisis: Study

NEW DELHI: A study by IIT-Kharagpur has flagged how Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs), which are the nerve centres of 100 smart cities, are staring at a financial sustainability crisis as states and municipalities are not allocating them enough funds.

ICCCs are integrated and centralised control-cum-monitoring centres for different services and systems of a city. The key features integrated under these centres are city infrastructure management, civic services monitoring, traffic and transportation management, safety and surveillance, and disaster risk simulation and prediction.

In its study on ICCCs' role on effective disaster management, the premier technical institute concluded that the financial sustainability of these centres remain the "biggest challenge" to be addressed by the Smart City Mission. It has strongly recommended a mechanism for revenue sharing, which is generated from the core functions of an ICCC such as traffic management and surveillance.

"At present, the revenue generated goes to the state exchequer with no basis for sharing with ICCCs which have to install, maintain, operate and periodically upgrade infrastructure. There are huge recurring costs required for the operation and maintenance of such infrastructure. A mechanism for cost sharing is mandatory for supporting the allied functions of the ICCC," the report said. It has recommended monetisation of ICCC infrastructure like optical fibre cable, and making a mobile application mandatory for ICCC and monetisation of such an application to bridge the cash crunch faced by these facilities.

"Mobile application and call centres should be made mandatory for all ICCCs apart from web-based services. This becomes the direct point of contact for citizens with urban local bodies (ULBs) and Smart City Mission via ICCC for availing varied urban services or lodging complaints related to the same," the report said.

Taking note of high dependence on private players in managing ICCCs, the study has recommended that there is a need to focus on in-house capacity building of staff and lesser reliance on the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). It has said OEMs must be supervised and managed by managerial staff either from the Smart City Mission unit or ULBs.

This study has lauded the role of ICCCs in disaster management in Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Agartala. It noted the role of these centres and smart city infrastructure in disease control and management particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has recommended the need to protect hardware deployed on the field for real-time information, which are prone to vandalism and theft.

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