By
As Prayagraj gears up for the historic Mahakumbh 2025, the city is embracing emerging technologies like AI to ensure seamless urban management and enhance citizen services. In an exclusive interview with Arpit Gupta of ETGovernment, Chandra Mohan Garg, Municipal Commissioner of Prayagraj Municipal Corporation, shares insights into the city’s ambitious AI-based surveillance initiative.
With over 2,700 CCTV cameras, including 400 AI-powered systems, the project aims to address key urban challenges such as waste management, traffic control, and crowd safety, marking a new era of smart, responsive governance in the city.
Edited excerpts:
The Prayagraj Municipal Corporation (PMC) has introduced AI-based citizen services management initiatives. How does this initiative work?
The Prayagraj Municipal Corporation has taken a significant step toward enhancing urban governance by incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our city management processes. This is the first initiative of its kind in Uttar Pradesh. We have integrated AI with daily city surveillance to streamline municipal services and ensure efficient management. Through this initiative, we have introduced AI-powered technologies that help monitor a variety of civic issues in real time, such as traffic management, waste collection, and city cleanliness.
What are the key technological components involved in this initiative?
As part of this initiative, we have installed around 2,700 CCTV cameras across the city, with over 400 of them being AI-based cameras. These cameras are primarily used for public surveillance, allowing us to monitor various urban issues such as barricades, parking, one-way traffic, and crowd density. Additionally, over 100 AI-based cameras are dedicated to video summarization, which helps us detect theft or track suspicious vehicles.
For large events like the Mahakumbh, this technology ensures better crowd management. We have deployed high-resolution 360-degree cameras mounted on vehicles. These vehicles cover 150 kilometers of city routes, providing a comprehensive view of the entire city. The AI algorithms analyze the footage to identify anomalies, such as stray animals, potholes, non-functional streetlights, and waste collection issues.
How does AI tools assist in monitoring and managing the city’s services, especially during the Maha Kumbh 2025?
During the Mahakumbh 2025, citizen-centric services are being closely monitored by an AI-based surveillance system. We have deployed AI-enabled cameras across the city, which will track movement for efficient crowd management, a crucial task during such a massive event. AI tools will help us detect and address six major urban issues in real time—waste management, streetlight functionality, potholes, encroachments, illegal hoardings, and sanitation services. This allows for quick identification of problems and ensures that all necessary services are maintained smoothly, creating a safer and more efficient environment for devotees and residents alike.
How does this initiative improve governance and benefit citizens?
The core aim of this initiative is to create a smart, responsive, and transparent governance system. By automating the detection and resolution of urban challenges, we can enhance the quality of civic services. The real-time monitoring of various urban aspects ensures faster complaint resolution, improving urban living standards. The initiative also promotes greater transparency in municipal operations, which fosters trust and engagement among citizens. The system allows for optimized resource allocation, which ultimately improves the overall efficiency of municipal operations.
Can you elaborate on the system’s operational workflow?
The workflow is quite seamless. Vehicles equipped with 360-degree cameras traverse city routes daily, capturing footage. AI algorithms process the captured data and flag anomalies such as potholes, encroachments, and garbage accumulation. These issues are then categorized and geo-tagged, and reports are automatically sent to the SWM Control Room. From there, tasks are assigned to the appropriate municipal teams. Task completion is monitored to ensure accountability and timely resolution of issues.
What are the expected outcomes of this initiative?
We expect several positive outcomes from this initiative. Firstly, the urban environment will significantly improve—there will be cleaner streets, better-maintained infrastructure, and more organized public spaces. Additionally, by reducing manual inspections, we’ll be able to operate more cost-effectively. Lastly, this initiative will increase citizen engagement, as visible improvements will foster greater trust in municipal governance. We also hope that this project can serve as a model for other cities in India to replicate.
Is there any future expansion planned for this AI-based system?
The system is scalable. One of the future expansions includes integrating the system with citizen feedback applications. This would allow us to gather direct feedback from residents, creating a more holistic approach to governance. We also aim to further refine the system and expand its capabilities as technology evolves.
How do you see the broader social implications of this initiative?
The AI-based citizen services management initiative is a testament to Prayagraj Municipal Corporation’s commitment to transforming urban governance through technology. By leveraging AI, we’re not only improving civic services but also creating a more transparent, responsive, and citizen-friendly governance system. This initiative sets a benchmark for urban management, and I believe it will inspire other cities to adopt similar models for a smarter, more sustainable future.
