admin 23 CRORE PEOPLE. 0 INCIDENTS!
Prayagraj Smart City Project —
A winner in keeping people safe!
Normally, projects that win Safety Awards are those that score heavily on maintaining high EHS standards without LTI. The Pragagraj Smart City project has won plaudits not only for the project team’s sterling EHS performance but also for keeping some 23 crore people safe during the Kumbha Mela or the festival of the sacred pitcher, that witnesses the world’s largest and densest congregation of pilgrims within a two-month window. Such mammoth gatherings, the world over, are prone to stampedes and fatal incidents and therefore it is not without reason that Project Manager, Jignesh Dube, EHS In-Charge Chetan Dambhare and the UP police are all an extremely relieved and happy lot. Together, they successfully managed (if it can be termed that!) this monstrous influx of people into the city of Prayagraj and ensured their safe return after a holy dip!
As we discussed, our list of deliverables kept increasing and our deadline shorter.
Jignesh Dube
Project Manager
Expanding list of challenges
The challenge facing the UP government and police was to evolve measures to ensure that the Kumbha event passed off peacefully without any major incident. After much research, studies and brainstorming, they concluded that the answer lay in employing smart digital solutions for better surveillance, crowd control and prevention of untoward incidents. The tough mandate was awarded to L&T’s Smart World Communication (SWC) business unit along with a crushing deadline to install, test and certify the smart solutions well ahead of the commencement of the festival on 5th January 2019.
I believe in keeping things simple, meticulously following the systems and processes which to my mind is why our EHS management was so successful at site.
Chetan Dambhare
EHS Incharge
“As we discussed, our list of deliverables kept increasing and our deadline shorter,” shares young Jignesh, for whom the project was almost like a snowball: getting bigger as it progressed! His final list of deliverables included 1,000+ surveillance cameras across 250 locations, integration of these to the existing set of cameras, adaptive traffic control systems replete with automatic number plate recognition cameras at 18 junctions, an Integrated Command & Control Centre (ICCC), multiple viewing command centres, video management & real time video analysis, a data & disaster recovery centre, variable messaging boards (VMD) at some 40 junctions, smart bins, Aadhar-based biometric devices and a help desk manned 24/7. “Then, we had to ensure last mile network connectivity,” adds Jignesh, mentally ticking off items, “provide training and lay some 350 km of optic fibre network.” SWC also has a 5‑year maintenance contract for IT and non-IT infrastructure.
Integrated Command & Control Centre, Prayagraj
The safe mantra: Keeping things simple
The installation of each asset be it a camera or a VMD, a command centre or a smart bin, was a unique challenge for Chetan. “Every installation was different because although we had initially surveyed and identified the locations for installation, at ground level, things were very different – varying topographies, various types of ‘roadblocks’ like infringing structures and, of course, the public.” Being a short, action-packed project, Chetan’s track record of 18 and a half lakh safe hours, with only 4 nearmisses and zero fatality is praiseworthy echoed by his client, the UP Police, in their letter of appreciation. “I believe in keeping things simple,” shares Chetan, “meticulously following the systems and processes which to my mind is why our EHS management was so successful at site,” he nods with a smile. Online EHS observations, NC audits, continuous training, mock drills, issuance of safe execution cards were all followed diligently that are reflected in his high safety scores. As good corporate citizens, the project team planted some 5,500 saplings and donated 25 bottles of blood during a blood donation camp.
Surveillance cameras
Artificial intelligence has been around for a while but a sub-field called Deep Learning has emerged into prominence in recent years which when applied to voice, video, image and text went a long way to help us solve the issue of crowd management.
R Srinivasan
Executive Vice President & Head – Smart World & Communication
Crowd Density Estimation at Strategic Locations
(Crowd density estimation at 20 strategic locations with 41 CCTV Cameras)
Keeping the city safe
Crowd control: “Artificial intelligence has been around for a while but a sub-field called Deep Learning has emerged into prominence in recent years,” informs R Srinivasan, Executive Vice President & Head – Smart World Communication BU, “which when applied to voice, video, image and text went a long way to help us solve the issue of crowd management.” Overcrowding was studied with threshold levels and created benchmarks while crowd management analytics were based on online counts (number of people crossing the line for a dip at the Sangam area) and density (or number of heads scanned). “Normally, 5 people per sq metre is a stampede situation,” warns Jignesh, “so a soft alert was triggered when density reached 3 people per sq. metre and evacuation was ordered if the number touched 4.” A dashboard for monitoring with graphical representation of crowd levels of the area under coverage was available for the police that provided trend analysis of peak and off-peak days, trigger alerts in the case of excessive crowds and generate daily, weekly, monthly reports.
Controlling criminal activity: Crime is an expected menace at such huge gatherings and the hands of the UP Police were strengthened in their effort to detect and deal with criminal activities by the 1000 odd surveillance cameras that included face recognition ones. “The police were able to apprehend a serial killer through our face recognition cameras,” remarks Jignesh.
Normally, 5 people per sq metre is a stampede situation, so a soft alert was triggered when density reached 3 people per sq. metre and evacuation was ordered if the number touched 4.
Jignesh Dube
Project Manager
Controlling traffic: 13 data analysis Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS) ensured that traffic flowed freely in the city. Traffic signals at several locations were reconfigured into various ATCS modes to meet the dynamic demand of traffic in different operating conditions along with a coordinated signal plan for junctions in sync with the area-wide signal plans. ATCS, in conjunction with well-engineered signal timing, receives and processes data from strategically placed sensors and the adaptive signal control technology adjusts the timing of the red, yellow and green lights to accommodate changing traffic patterns to ease traffic congestion. The city scored high on achieving ‘Maximum green which is a measure of the average time required by traffic from all approaches to clear a junction during respective rights of ways. “At an average, ATCS can improve travel time by about 10% and up to 50% when it replaces outdated systems,” adds Jignesh.
Kumbha Mela 2019 is only an ice memory for Jignesh, Chetan and team but the the holy city of Prayagraj will continue to enjoy the benefits of smart digitalization. “Yes, we are extremely proud that we contributed to this success thanks to our smart digital solutions,” enthuses Jignesh though he adds humbly, “but what is even more satisfying is that we achieved our mandate of Zero Harm to the pilgrims!”.
