Centre asks IISc to design data site for smart cities

Bengaluru, Dec 12 (IANS) The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has asked the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to design a data site for information exchange among smart cities, the premier institute said on Wednesday.

"The Ministry has asked our institute to create a data exchange platform for smart cities in collaboration with industry, NGOs and government agencies," said the city-based IISc in a statement.

The "Smart Cities Mission" launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 aims to develop 100 citizen-friendly and sustainable cities using technological solutions across the country.

"The city administrators are looking at leveraging the volume of data being generated by smart sensors deployed in their cities to improve operational excellence," said the statement.

The platform will enable easy exchange of data among various city departments and organisations, it added.

"Such a framework will enable data empowerment for the city's administrators and other stakeholders and bring in data-driven, smart operations for our cities," added the statement.

In a related development, the Electronics City Industrial Township Authority (ELCITA) said it would partner with the IISc to pilot creation of data generated smart city project in the Electronics City on the outskirts of south Bengaluru.

"The partnership furthers the initiative of the Ministry's programme to develop 100 smart cities in the country," said the authority in a statement here.

The smart cities project is aimed at catalysing investments in infrastructure and services, development of integrated approaches to problem solving, promotion of co-creation and bottom-up innovation using technology.