An Integrated Solution comprising multiple smart technologies including Surveillance System, Traffic Analytics, e-Governance, Solid Waste Management will be deployed in phases across the city of Rourkela by the Rourkela Smart City Limited (RSCL) at a cost of around of INR 110 Crores.
In April 2022, the Rourkela Smart City Limited invited bids for the Selection of Master System Integrator (MSI) for the Implementation of Smart Solutions in Rourkela. Multiple Master System Integrators showed interest and finally after a thorough tendering process, the bid from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a Navratna PSU under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India has been found to be lowest and technically qualied. According to RSCL, the project is soon going to commence and progress will be soon visible to the citizens.
Bharat Electronics Limited in their bid has proposed solutions from leading globally reputed manufacturers including Honeywell for Cameras, Video Wall from Barco, Network Switching and Servers from Dell and storage solution from Hitachi. More than 500 cameras will be installed across the traffic junctions of the growing city along with intelligent Traffic Lights using Adaptive Traffic Control System (ATCS) technology to ensure safer roads. Few select locations will also have Emergency Call Boxes to facilitate direct communication by citizens for any help during emergency situations. The city wide Optical Fiber Network will connect all field locations to the Command and Control Center, secured using wireless fire alarm and access control system, will form the nerve centre. Mr. Kundan Chandra, Regional Head at Honeywell Security which is a global leader in the video surveillance industry said that the proposed high resolution cameras with wide angle lens will ensure better functioning of the Traffic analytics and AI based Video Analytics to ensure safer roads for both motorists and pedestrians.
According to Mr. Debanuj De, Vice President at Trisim Global Solutions, a design and engineering firm in field of Smart Cities and who had been working closely with some of the OEMs considered for the project, the RFP floated by Rourkela Smart City Limited was well-drafted and had optimized the solution requirement from last time when the tender had been floated few years back.
Mr. De also shared that the solution from BEL is appreciable as it has a fair mix of globally reputed manufacturers as well as Indian technology companies with proven credentials. He shared that Threat Point Intelligence Solution from CrowdStrike, a global cyber security leader headquartered in Texas, USA, which has been deployed by Bangalore city recently has been proposed by BEL for Rourkela. Motadata based out of Ahmedabad with multiple deployments across smart cities in India, has been proposed for Enterprise and Network Management. Similarly, Integrated Command and Control Platform software will be deployed in Rourkela from Trinity which is an Indian company and recognized as a leader in the space with multiple smart city control rooms across the country running the software.
Mr. Snigdhodev Bhattacharya, Head Govt and Defence Business at CrowdStrike which has it’s India headquarter and R&D centre in Pune, highlighted that RSCL has given due attention to cyber security while drafting the RFP. Getting the right level of intelligence ensures prompt security decisions. Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is recognized by Cyber Security Experts as an essential component for any large and complex network like smart cities and it will be deployed in Rourkela to offer security teams substantial advantages, not only during an incident but also before an attack even starts. CrowdStrike, in partnership with Trisim who is helping in stitching the tool with other OEM solutions in the project, is set to ensure that CTI provides high uptime for the solutions deployed at Rourkela Smart City.
