Varanasi Smart City Project
Design, Development, Implementation, and Maintenance of the Varanasi Smart City Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Solutions
Varanasi, a city of cultural and spiritual beliefs situated on the banks of River Ganga, is popularly termed as the City of Music by UNESCO. The city is known worldwide for ghats, embankments along the river bank, where pilgrims perform ritual ablutions. It is also known as Benares, Banaras, and Kashi.
Several bodies govern Varanasi, the most important being the Varanasi Nagar Nigam (Municipal Corporation), which is responsible for the master planning of the city. The Varanasi Smart City Limited (VSCL) is responsible for executing Smart City Mission (SCM) in Varanasi, led by the Divisional Commissioner, Varanasi Division of UP and works closely with the Municipal Corporation of Varanasi with the objective to achieve success in the implementation of Smart City Mission for Varanasi.
The vision statement of VSCL is - “To rejuvenate the oldest Indian living city of Varanasi as a great place to live and visit by conserving and showcasing its enriched heritage, culture, spirituality, and traditions through innovative social and financial inclusion solutions.”
Transforming the holy city into a smart city included specific prime objectives, such as:
- Building a centralized Command and Control system to monitor and control PAN city operations
- Implementing and maintaining a dedicated city-wide video surveillance system to aid the city administrators
- Protecting the citizens and ensuring public safety to effectively fight threats from activities like vandalism, burglary, violence, and all other forms of crimes
- Establishing a smart city environment to manage devices for accident detection, traffic congestion, pollution, adverse weather conditions, etc.
- Citizen-friendly cost-effective governance, improved administrative efficiency, access to public properties
- Pilgrim and tourist’s facilitation
EFKON India was designated as the Master System Integrator (MSI) for developing, implementing, and regulating several smart projects in Varanasi. These included Intelligent Transport Management Systems, City Surveillance Systems, Control Center Systems, Spot Speed Detection Systems, Red Light Violation Detection, Data Centers with Smart Governance and Network, and Variable Message Signboards across the city.
The aim was to ensure optimum and efficient delivery of public services to the citizens and visitors of Varanasi through the turnkey deployment of Smart traffic management, and advanced ICT enabled security solutions. The Kashi Integrated Command and Control Center (KICCC) would be built to provide a comprehensive system for planning, optimizing resources, and responding to the standard functions of the concerned authorities. With a view of enabling varied and respective stakeholders to operate specified Smart City components, it is proposed to build an Operation Center, housed inside the KICCC, which will cater to the city operations, city surveillance, and helpdesk in an integrated manner.
EFKON India provided services like city and traffic surveillance on
21 |
junctions through Red Light Violation Detection (RLVD), Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS) |
4 |
junctions through Speed Violation Detection (SVD) |
13 |
numbers of Variable Message Displays |
45 |
Public Address Systems (PAS) |
649 |
surveillance cameras including Pan-tilt Zoom (PTZ) and fixed cameras |
11 |
smart parking zones |
50 |
environmental sensors |
200 |
daily e-challan generation capabilities |
Benefits to the local administrations and citizens of Varanasi
Public Announcement System (PAS) allowing officials to address a large public gathering, emergencies, movements at large air and rail terminals
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) ensuring the continued safety of all road users and monitoring traffic activities
Red Light Violation Detection (RLVD) System improving compliance with road traffic rules concerning red light violation and ensuring smooth movement of vehicles
E-Challan issuing of automatic e-challan for the violators on a 24x7 basis
Speed Violation Detection (SVD) detecting rash drivers/riders and penalizing them as appropriate
Video Management System (VMS) ensuring the safety and security of citizens using city surveillance cameras
Environment Sensors monitoring real-time pollution levels
Adaptive Traffic Control System (ATCS) improving travel time and reduce congestion on junctions
Variable Message Signboards (VMS) providing information to commuters traveling towards the city
The KICCC provides 24*7 city surveillance for effective management of the city to monitor, control, and manage road traffic.
