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BW Businessworld

Safety And Security Are Key Aspects Of Smart Cities

“The safety and security aspect of subject covers all areas of governance, everything links to the surveillance system of a smart city," said Avinash Bhoi, General Manager, Raipur Smart City Ltd.

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One of the most important issues concerning our cities today is their safety & security as India continues to grow in size and population. With this, its complexity also is bound to increase. Dwelling upon various aspects to build robust and sustainable cities, a panel of experts came together at BW Businessworld Smart Cities Conclave in Patna to deliberate on how our local governments can ensure the security of our cities. The safety and security of a city includes its general security as well as cyber security wherein the latter has been an area of focus since last few years.

Talking about the vulnerability in cybersecurity, Shyam Bihari Meena, Commissioner, Bhagalpur Municipal Corporation said, “Every smart city has a massive surveillance system, which provides a sight insight into the functioning of a city and tries to intervene on a real-time basis.”

Mohammad Imran, Superintendent of Police, UP100 stated, “The psychological and physical well-being of a citizen is important, only then our cities can aspire to become smarter. Technology manipulation can be high at the same time. For example- talking about waste management system, if someone hacks into the concerned system, the possibility of communicable diseases can spread high, a criminal can get hold of a data and can manipulate it to his whims, so data safety too is a paramount aspect. A good safety system requires investment and funding, then comes standardization, same systems across all the cities need to be ensured.”

Avinash Bhoi, General Manager, Raipur Smart City Ltd. said, “The safety and security aspect of subject covers all areas of governance, everything links to the surveillance system of a smart city. In cities like Mumbai, there were various instances of drowning in potholes that are reported every now and then, this shows how IT has a big role in ensuring the safety of our cities. Implementation of a robust IT infrastructure can reduce a lot of causalities in cities by their real-time surveillance. Also, behavioural change through IT is very important, integration of all the Government departments should be included in such systems. However, cost is a big concern while planning projects, so peoples’ contribution should be invited as they should take charge on their own too and pool funds to ensure the safety of their surroundings.”


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smart cities smart cities conclave