The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) commissioner has recently taken charge on May 2. He is known for taking affirmative action against illegal construction and has razed several of them in Navi Mumbai. Not surprisingly, a proposal to use the LiDAR technology will be moved in the next General body meeting of NMMC today. The technology will help the Municipality keeps tabs on all the land related installations owned by NMMC. Abhishek Raval speaks with Tukaram Mundhe, Municipal Commissioner, NMMC
Land records is an important component in any Municipality. Drones, VR are gradually becoming mainstream in enhancing efficiency in land data recording, evaluation, visualisation. Does NMMC plan to use similar technologies for NMMC?
We have already moved a proposal in the upcoming General Body meeting of NMMC, to use drones, 3D images for capturing and mapping every public property, be it roads, water bodies, buildings using the Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology. This data will be used for creating further efficiency in providing citizen services and planned development of Navi Mumbai.
What’s your vision of using IT for Municipality or a local body ?
IT is a means to achieve the goal. As far as the Municipality is concerned, we need to deliver the citizen services. So that the footfall at the civic offices is lower and they can get the services at their doorsteps or on the mobile – whether it is about grievance redressal, payment of taxes, smart solutions for transportation, water or property taxes. Even for that matter, assessment of properties can be done through IT enabled solutions.
Technology reduces the scope for corruption, the reason being the interaction between the citizens and the government should be minimal and once that happens, the face to face conversations will be replaced by the IT systems
You have just taken charge of Commissioner at the NMMC, what steps are you taking to use IT for fulfilling the citizen objectives ?
NMMC will adopt a new IT architecture. A consultant has been appointed. A roadmap will be prepared for delivery of IT services. A process reengineering is also underway. Subsequent to the roadmap completion, tendering will be completed and NMMC will be ready to serve the citizens on not only online platforms but also social apps, public utility apps like tax payments, water and health services, transportation etc.
The idea is to set up a front and back end for the IT architecture to automate the citizen service delivery and reduce the turnaround time of service delivery. It will also not require the citizens to visit the civic offices.
We will also take into account the Smart city requirements and include them in the IT architecture in advance so that when required we are ready from day one.