From training healthcare workers to spraying disinfectants from drones to distributing food to 1.6 lakh people to checking on a vehicle carrying medical supplies or ordering groceries and issuing curfew passes – every little detail is managed from this war room in Bengaluru. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner B H Anil Kumar said, “The war room has become a platform for strategic management by situational analysis at micro level and prepare for future.”
Right before the lockdown on March 25, when India imposed travel restrictions the idea took shape in ministry of housing and urban affairs to use command and control centres in 45 cities as the hub to manage all operations. Smart Mission directorate contacted NASSCOM and sought help to bring IT companies on board for solutions. Within days companies got together to offer solutions – all pro bono. The venture includes Infosys, Quantela Inc, ESRI India, Pro-Digital and Covid-19 Consortium for Predictive Modelling which is a group of organisations like Indian Institute of Science and Wadhwani Institute of Artificial Intelligence that is helping in using data science.
Smart City Mission director Kunal Kumar said, “ hi-tech war room is not required. Any city can replicate it using 8-9 computers.”
