-Sravan Kumar, Corp.Commissoner at PSG Tech Intl Conference
Coimbatore is progressively developing under the smart city project and stands 1st among the other 11 smart cities projects in Tamil Nadu.
For a smart city project to be completely fruitful, the City Corporation needs tremendous technology support from industry experts who can share their experiences and best practices.
On the other hand academia could help in ideation and discussions of the challenges to harvest maximum potential from each sector like Man Power, Logistics, Data Analysis etc.
To discuss and debate on the challenges and solutions to make smart city project successful, the Department of Mechanical Engineering of PSG Tech is organising a two day International Conference on Development and Management of Smart Cities and Homes between 27.2.2020 & 28.2.2020.The conference is sponsored by AICTE.
The inaugural address of the conference was delivered by Sravan Kumar. J, Commissioner, Coimbatore Corporation.
He said Smart City Project is the Govt of India’s flagship product that aims to make 100 cities on par with the world’s best cities. Chennai and Coimbatore have the early bird advantage of getting this project but at the sametime they have some hurdles too.
He said that planning is the key to progress and there are many plans being executed in the city. He underlined that the Corporation has adopted 9 lakes in Coimbatore and is focused on rejuvenating and restoring it via solution provided by Engineering and the Ecology.
On other aspects of smart city development, he said the city has implemented technology and there are several data in hand. With the growth in Information Technology, message dissemination is faster , and this potential needs to be utilized better in the smart city project, remarked Sravan.
He said Coimbatore is consuming energy and at the same time conserving it effectively, and mentioned that the District recently received a Govt Award for its Solar Power usage. He stressed that the corporation is focused in making the city better than what it was yesterday.
Appealing to PSG, he said that the Corporation is willing to give an intership to the students under which they can survey what are the Urban Challenges that are faced in the city.
Krishnamoorthy Raman, Founder, NAVTAT Solutions Bengaluru was the Guest of Honor and delivered the Keynote Address.
“The customers of a smart city are those who live in it”, said Krishnamoorthy.
The projects should be inclusive and it should touch everyone in the city, especially the downtrodden.
Smart cities should have greater level of Liveability, Workability, Sustainability and it must enable better Productivity.
He said the Govt of India failed in their Smart City project in the initial 3 to 4 years as they didn’t see the needs of a city individually but saw what is generic.
With the Union Budget allocating Rs.2 Lac Crores, the Corporation cheifs need to show their progress to the Govt.to get their share for their city. Allocation for a smart city project is “performance and merit based”.
He then briefed on the various solutions to issues that are primary hurdles to success of smart city.
He spoke on Waste Management, Energy Management, Security Surveillance, Transportation, Resource Management, Smart Campuses, effective banking, Smart and Personalized WellBeing Ideas and much more.
V.Ramkumar, Group Delivery Head, Enterprise Engineering Software, L&T, Bengaluru said that a smart city project brings with it a load of opportunities. There are solutions to some challenges but for certain challenges there are no solutions available yet, and the millennial generation can utilize this opening, create solutions and make society better.
The startup culture is increasing here and youngsters with ideas could be great contributors, he added.
He said that a smart city need not aim to cover all the verticals but pick what it needs the most, for instance smart heathcare solutions or smart water and waste management.
In a smart city project, while trying to explore a solution, there will be need for many technology providers (like Sensor providers, Data Processors, Data Storages, Quality Analysers) Every technology will need its own ecosystem and he said these technology providers will have to come together to accomplish the objective.He highlighted how L&T is facilitating such technology in a small video.
Day 1 also features Keynote Address from M. Subah Chandra, Project Manager, Coimbatore Smart City Ltd.