Gurugram has roped in Cisco for its new plan to reduce traffic and crime ⁠— including video surveillance

• Gurugram is looking to become a ‘smarter city’ with its new Integrated Command and Control Center (ICCC) that uses Cisco’s Smart City digital solution to improve urban services.
• The city’s plans to the ICCC to also employ video surveillance to improve citizen safety covering all 115 sectors under the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA).
• According to Cisco, the artificial intelligence (AI) in the system will allow the police to monitor and detect criminal activity quicker.
• The ICCC will also help with traffic management and urban parking to ease some of Gurugram’s vehicular woes.

Gurugram is vying to be a smarter city. Today, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) inaugurated an Integrated Command and Control Center (ICCC) that uses digital technology to improve urban services. This includes citizen safety, public infrastructure and better traffic management.

And, when it comes to citizen safety, it includes building an integrated video surveillance system that will cover all 115 sectors between Gurugram and Manesar that fall under the GMDA.

They’re watching you

The grid of cameras will be used by Cisco’s Next-Generation Firewall and Stealthwatch to detect threats and conduct ‘in-depth forensics’.

According to the company, the artificial intelligence (AI) deployed will allow the police to monitor and detect criminal activity quicker. In addition, the system will also ensure that any video evidence is tamper-proof for any post-event analysis.

The GMDA wants the ICCC to be ‘nodal point’ for city surveillance.

Public video surveillance is growing more prominent as threats of terrorism increase and the price of cameras fall. But, it leaves the system open to abuse — not just to threats from the outside, for personal gain or with criminal intent, but institutional abuse as well, like discriminatory targeting.

Solving Gurugram’s traffic woes

Aside from surveillance, the ICCC will also be integral for managing traffic in the city that often gets clogged during peak hours — at times extending to 7 kilometres. Even during heavy rains, water clogging results in congestion and the slowdown of vehicles on the highway.

Cars travelling on the roads are only one part of the problem — a bigger problem lies with the cars on the sides of roads. Illegal parking runs rampant in Gurgaon with companies and individuals fighting over coveted space. Issues go all the way from Udyog Vihar to Golf Course Road and even Mehrauli where nearly 11,000 vehicles are parked illegally on a daily basis, according to GMDA’s draft mobility plan.

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