Smart City Centre to open in Surat on June 25

SURAT: Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) will be launching its Smart City Centre and Intelligent Transit Management System (ITMS) here on June 25. The Smart City Centre is coming up at Gandhi Hall of SMC main building and ITMS at Ambedkar Shopping Centre on Ring Road.

Surat is one of the first 20 cities to be selected under smart city programme of government and the centre and the system will expectedly change the working pattern of the local body.

All the online applications and mobile applications of SMC for people-centric services would be monitored from one place at the Smart City Centre. Birth and death certificates, relevant information on development plans and essential services, including water supply, would be integrated at Smart City Centre. ITMS would integrate BRTS and city bus services along with vehicle location System (VLS).

The passenger information system would be integrated with information on bus schedules. The two centres would be launched at Gandhi Smruti Bhavan before a live broadcast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech from Pune on June 25.

"SMC surveillance system would be strengthened. Even the feed from police camera network would be available at Smart City Centre. SMC plans to set up 1,000 CCTV cameras for keeping an eye on its installations and facilities. Smart City Centre would be a command centre for all," SMC city engineer Jatin Shah said.

Municipal commissioner Milind Torwane said, these centres will help us to serve citizens in an effective manner. These services are people-centric." Union ministry of urban development officer Aashish Dubey witnessed a demonstration of these centres during the weekend.