Workforce app to assist Greater Chennai Corporation mount a coordinated response to disasters

GCC's Workforce app enables quick contact with officials to resolve grievances, from fallen trees to solid waste management. It also contains a phone directory of all Corporation officials, contact points, snake catchers, and boat operators. Additionally, the app provides info on shelters, medicines, food, and machinery. CEP platform in works to allow citizens to directly engage with GCC officials.

During the last monsoon, an Workforce app was developed by a team at the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC). Since October 2022, it has been designed to make quick contact with officials and resolve grievances. Its effectiveness will be truly put to the test during the upcoming monsoon.

Currently, the Workforce app is used by officers of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) across all levels to resolve day-to-day grievances, from fallen trees to solid waste management. Grievances from calls to 1913 and via social media are collected and recorded on the app.

The app’s dashboard contains category-wise data on the number of complaints that are received, resolved and pending, right down the ward level, said G. Rajeshwari, a system analyst and head of the ICCC. The official concerned will receive an intimation about the complaint. If grievances are not resolved within the stipulated time or if they are being reopened, notifications will be sent to higher-level officials. The same system will be in use during a disaster.

To make it quicker to contact the relevant officials during disasters, the team at ICCC has introduced a phone directory in the app that contains the numbers of all Corporation officials from higher to lower levels and contact points in line departments (electricity board, Metrowater, and the police and fire departments). Additionally, the numbers of snake catchers and boat operators are included in the case of a flood.

“This makes it possible to directly contact a field-level staff member instead of having to go through several levels of officials,” Ms. Rajeshwari said. Information on shelters and availability of medicines and food are included in the app for swift action during a flood. Officials can also find out the availability of machinery from motor pumps to earth movers easily, thereby bringing down the response time.

GCC Commissioner J. Radhakrishnan hailed the app as a moment in the modernising of the Corporation’s functioning and said it represented one place for all relevant data during a crisis. A citizen engagement platform (CEP) is also in the works, which will allow citizens to directly engage with GCC officials on the app, an official said.