Saturday, September 19, 2015

Smart City: Citizen Consultation for New Town

At the Citizen Consultation meet at NKDA office this afternoon, we released a brochure with a feedback form for citizens. We also launched the Smart Phone Application today. This is called Smart City New Town. It is available free at Google Play. It will soon be available in App Store of Apple too. There will be six functions: for today, the "Places of Interest" apps was demonstrated at the meeting through a short power-point presentation.


There was a citizen interaction after brief speeches.

Citizen meet at 1, BBS





3 comments:

  1. Smart Phone App is a great step. If HIDCO really wants it to be popular and make it a revenue-generating source, it needs the following features:

    1. App needs to be really scalable so that at least 200 users can use it simultaneously and it does not hang. (Most Apps suffer in this aspect).

    2. There should be a "Shop Locator" service. Say I want to locate a medicine shop near my house, based on MY GPS Location, I should be able to find it.

    This can be a Revenue earning source for HIDCO as many stores in the different malls in Rajarhat can use this APP as a AD platform to let the customers know of various discounts they are offering. This feature can be cashcow of HIDCO.

    3. This APP should also be able to give the nearest parking lots map as well as the space available in those parking lots. Vacant space available in parking can be detected through sophisticated algorithms by observing the images in CCTV in real time. Also this will reduce pollution and congestion in roads and more earnings from HIDCO.

    4. App should have a "Complaint Section" where citizens can write complaints to HIDCO about various services. This section should also have a picture upload facility so that citizens can upload pictures of stuffs like potholes , fallen trees etc.
    A real true blue example of "Participatory Democracy".

    5. Though App, let the online Ticket booking of Eco Park, MWM , Rabindra Tirtha and Nazrul Tirtha Happen. Also the APP should be able to inform about the upcoming shows in Rabindra Tirtha and Nazrul Tirtha.

    6. APP should also be able to do an "Online Table Reservation" in Cafe Ekante. Customers can get a particular slot in Cafe Ekante for the reservation. This will be particularly useful during BUSY Days like all 5 days of Durgapujo, Bhaiphota, Jamaisasthi, 25th December, 31st December. Per booking, for table resrvation, HIDCO can charge a fee of Rs. 25-30 ( say an example)



    But all these features requires really skilled Comp Science Programming skills and an organization of repute and a time-line of 3 months at least.

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  2. Dear Sir,
    In order to increase the usage of the app. I think the following features may also help :

    1. The app should be able to inform the citizen about the location of buses and expected arrival time of the next bus.It should have Uber like feature showing the location of various busses on a map and estimated time of arrival.

    2. Citizens can report :
    Trash & Litter
    a. Litter
    b. Missed Trash
    c. Over flowing Trash Can

    Health Hazards
    a. Dead Animal Pickup
    b. Rodent Sightings / Mosquito Breeding Ground

    Street and Park Damage
    a. Broken Park Equipment
    b. Broken Sidewalk
    c. Damaged Sign
    d. Pothole

    Reporting of the following :
    - Noise
    - Lost property in taxis
    - Illegal parking
    - Blocked driveways
    - Abandoned vehicles
    - Street light
    - Damaged Tree

    - Illegal Dumping
    - Building graffiti
    - Food establishments
    - Homeless assistance

    -Leaking Pipes
    -Sewer waster water spill

    The app should not only take the reports from the citizens but also report back on the resolution of the problem with a picture of resolution.

    The App should be able to support :
    -Support anonymous reporting
    -Competition on Good ideas
    -Incentive in terms of redeemable points for reporting.T

    The User Interface of the app which has been developed for New Town needs significant improvement , currently it looks very cold. The developers of this app may do case studies of the similar app developed for the city of Houston, New York city, Boston, Amsterdam, Edinburg avaliable at google play.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The bus module is in out plan process. This will be quite useful

    ReplyDelete