FCC

Nagpur Smart City and healthy experimentation

2022-07-27

The winter capital of Maharashtra was recently facilitated nationally for its intent to scale up walking and cycling transformation and accelerate the progress of street design projects. The city has also been garnering attention for its Maha Metro project that has been breaking multiple infrastructure and engineering records – the latest for its longest double-decker viaduct as on the date of printing. Chinmay Gotmare, CEO, Nagpur Smart City (NSSCDCL), talks about the multiple opportunities in the city and offers his insights on its progress.

Keeping in mind the need for hygiene and sanitation, how has the city progressed on its plans to set up 100 e-toilets? We have recently given the work order for e-toilets or smart toilets. This is in response to the shortage of good, clean toilets around the city, especially for women. These will have features like auto flushing and sanitising after every use, and can be controlled remotely from the central operations centre (COC). The order is being carried out by Eram Scientific Solutions, a Bengaluru-based company.

We are also working on something called ‘smart bins’. There are public waste bins of about 1,100 litres capacity, which have a volumetric sensor installed on top. So, as the bin fills up to a particular level, say 80 per cent, the sensor signals our COC, which responds by dispatching a garbage vehicle to unload them. This ensures the bins do not spill over, which is a major problem across most cities. This also aligns with the Swachh Bharat Mission of making cities cleaner. We had published tenders for this more than once as there are few players in the market for this. And to ensure fair competition, they are still active. CW dives deep into the successes of Nagpur Smart City.