Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Feb 2: The Command and Control Centre, the second one in the country after Ludhiana in Punjab, became fully functional in city on Tuesday February 1. The next cities of the state in line for the introduction of this system are Shivamogga and Davanagere. 

This control centre, located in the city corporation building at Lalbagh here has been built under the Smart City project. The centre keeps track of everything, right from solid waste management to movement of buses, environment control, disaster management etc., and has a unified message system. All these things get beamed on big smart screens. Traffic police, Covid control officials and command centre staff work here.

Solid waste management

QR codes have already been pasted on the houses and other buildings in the city. The staff who visit the  houses for solid waste collection, scan the codes through their devices. If they collect garbage, the centre gets the information. If the QR codes are not scanned, it means that the garbage has not been collected from there. The centre also gets information about the number of loads of waste that reaches the solid waste dumping yard at Pachanady. 

Intelligent Transport System
 
GPS has been fitted in the private and KSRTC buses moving around the city. Boards have been set up at the smart bus shelters where there will be displays showing the bus arrival and departure time, and boarding points, stops and destination. Information about the speed of the bus will also be displayed. Similar information is also flashed on the screen at the centre.

Unified Message System
 
Messages from the government to the general public on matters like Covid, vaccination etc., will be sent through a Unified Message System. The messages are prepared at the centre and sent to the deputy commissioner. Once he approves it, the messages get beamed to registered mobile numbers in one stroke. 

Disaster management

When some natural calamity, accident, disaster etc., occurs in the city, the information reaches the command centre through the people after which it gets transmitted immediately to the police, fire service, ambulance etc., so that the concerned can act immediately.

Environment sensor

Sensors have been set up in the corporation building, Crescent School in Bunder, Town Hall, Block Education Office in Bolar and near Ambedkar Circle in Balmatta. These sensors beam information about the air quality, carbon dioxide,nitrogen, sulphur dioxide etc., levels and they get displayed on the screen at the centre. If needed, the concerned will act.

OneTouch app

The applications loaded in the command centre are available for the public through the OneTouch Mangalore app. People can download the same in the coming days. They can also scan QR code and register complaints, if any. The city corporaiton will suitably respond, says Royson D'Souza, domain expert of the Command and Control System.

Police surveillance

Smart poles have been set up at 14 places. Each of these smart poles have five cameras. Each camera rotates 360 degrees, with a zooming capacity of 500 meters. Traffic police who monitor the surveillance, send notifications about fines and other notices  along with photos to those who violate rules. 

In the second phase of the command centre, cameras which will also clearly show the registration number plates of the vehicles will be installed. Emergency call boxes, exhibition boards, public announcement systems etc., will be installed in the smart poles. In case of emergency, at the touch of a button, the centre gets video calls and the concerned will respond to the concern.

Emergency call box

Emergency call box has been set up in 14 places in city. Any individual who wants to complain about an issue can press a button in the emergency call box which directly gets in touch with the command room via video or audio call. The complaints will be received and transferred to the officials concerned. Recently in Kadri, a traffic constable had sought help through an emergency call box to clear traffic congestion which was addressed immediately.