Youngsters took pictures of stray dogs, garbage stagnation, faulty traffic signals and worn out roads on their tablets
Apollo Hospitals founder and chairman Prathap C. Reddy greets Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. TVS Motors chairman Venu Srinivasan and other industrialists look on during the valedictory function of "Global Investors Meet (GIM) 2015" at Trade Center
Chennai: This is a story of techies who worked round-the-clock and played a major role in streamlining roads, traffic, managing infrastructure and making Chennai shine during the Global Investors Meet.
Groups of young men and women ahead of September first week took pictures of stray dogs, garbage stagnation, faulty traffic signals and worn out roads on their tablets. In seconds, they were uploading them with GPS mapping so that the engineers and police personnel concerned could address the issue on a real-time basis. The result: parts of Chennai looked spotless during the two-day meet.
“We were roped in by the Industries department as part of the city beautification project to monitor select roads. Since August, a three-member team was working on 65 roads located adjacent to Nandambakkam, GIM venue. An eight member team was doing a survey of all roads leading to GIM,” said Satyarupa Shekhar, project director of Chennai Data Portal Initiative.
The GIM organisers wanted an independent monitoring team that would provide accurate details on specific civic issues like broken road signs, abandoned vehicles, encroachments, traffic bottlenecks and faulty streetlights and also suggest solutions, she said.
Business analyst of the project, S. Prasanna, explained that the field staff after taking pictures uploaded them to their main server, after adding specific details like area and street names. The complaints with GPS mapping were forwarded to the departments concerned.
“State highways officials responded positive in attending the complaints and were also tech savvy, when compared with their counterparts in traffic police and Chennai corporation,” said project analyst C. Poornima.
“We were briefed about the significance of GIM by the corporation seniors. Additional staff were deployed to enhance sanitation along the city’s coast. Granite footpaths and stages were washed periodically and all these operations were shared through WhatsApp on periodical basis”, said Nisha Thotta, engaged in cleaning of beach for the corporation. Some sanitary workers are now trained to share videos and images in WhatsApp group for better maintenance of the beach, she added.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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