Smart poles, installed under Smart City Mission-2015, become defunct in Visakhapatnam

Smart poles, installed under Smart City Mission-2015, become defunct in Visakhapatnam

Almost all the smart poles in Visakhapatnam city appear to be gathering rust as they are not functioning, with the general public expressing dissatisfaction that they are not providing the services they were originally intended for. People have been urging the authorities concerned to repair and make them available to public, and mostly to tourists and visitors.

As part of the Union government’s Smart City Mission-2015, the poles were installed at 50 different locations across the city at a cost of around ₹15 crore with the aim of providing early warnings about natural calamities like Cyclone Hudhud (October 2014), heat waves, rains and air pollution or gas leaks like the LG Polymers gas leak on May 7, 2020.

Some of the locations include RK Beach, VMRDA Central Park in Dwarakanagar, NAD Junction, Diamond Park Junction, Gopalapatnam, Madhuravada and Gajuwaka.

In the initial days, these poles were used for some services like public announcements, but later they were stopped.

Confirming this to The Hindu on Monday (February 17), an official who is part of the Smart City Mission, speaking on condition of anonymity due to MLC Model Code of Conduct, said, “Yes, smart poles have not been active for the past few years. We had once tried to bring them to use, and even consulted a contractor for the maintenance of the poles through an open tender, but the contractor quoted around ₹80 crore. So, we withdrew it due to the funds’ issue. Moreover, the poles are currently under the Centre’s Smart City Mission-2015. Its tenure will end by March, 2025. After that, the poles will be the property of the State government. So, we can think about the maintenance and use of the poles in the new financial year 2025-26, which starts from April 1. The poles will mostly be useful for disaster departments like Fire, Pollution Control Board, Police, and India Meteorological Department to update information to public.”

In the initial phase, the poles were connected to the Command Control Centre. Each pole was equipped with CCTV cameras, pan-tilt zoom cameras, environmental sensors to detect weather data such as temperature, noise, humidity, air quality and wind speed, issue of disaster alerts, free internet supply up to 300 metres surrounding the pole through its Wi-Fi, emergency call system with dial-in option (people can go to the pole and dial emergency numbers in case of any emergency like accidents, threats, fire), public announcement speakers, and efficient remotely operated LED lighting. The smart poles were designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 225 km/h and were 14 metres above ground level.