How civic tech firm Transerve uses geospatial technology for integrating smart city solutions

Panaji based civic technology firm Transerve has built a map platform for visualising analytics on geo-spatial data. It helps in deploying customised applications for asset tracking/mapping, monitoring of projects, and spatial data collection with geo-tagged pictures and videos. Founded by IIT Kanpur alumni, Amarsh Chaturvedi and Ashwani Rawat, Transerve has developed a platform named, CityOS, to solve pressing urban issues like property tax, water, sanitation and solid waste management. From identification to the solving of complex problems related to urban setup – such as inventorying urban assets, revenue enhancement, land records – this civic technology company uses geospatial technology in integrating smart city solutions to solve a variety of pressing socio-urban issues while enabling smart governance. CityOS and Transerve Online Stack (TOS) have demonstrated huge success in areas such as fecal sludge management, utilities, forestry and Municipal GIS in India.

“We are focusing on strengthening urban local bodies by setting up Municipal GIS and integrating it with e-governance modules. Enhancing tax revenues using machine learning in spatial technology, maintaining utilities, asset inventory and integration with command and control centers have been beneficial for cities across the world,” informs Rawat.

Transerve will be shortly releasing an unified urban platform covering the entire urban landscape. It will utilise open standards with an intention to offer a non-proprietary platform that can be used by all. As part of its ongoing projects, Transerve is implementing its City Scope solution which is co-developed by MIT, USA and University of Hamburg, Germany. The tool will help governments in planning the city and will assist in decision making. Currently, its execution is on-going in Bhubaneswar, in Odisha.

Furthermore, Transerve is implementing CityOS for four cities in Uttar Pradesh – Aligarh, Bareilly, Moradabad and Saharanpur. The solution will help these cities to create baseline data for enhancing the revenue for ULBs and providing basic civic services to citizens.

Asked how the solution is different from existing solutions in the market, Chaturvedi says, “Our solutions are customised for India and have been developed considering the modular and scalable nature of the platform. The platform is developed on MEAN stack with NUIS architecture which is promoted by MaHUA. It is based on microservices and helps cities in creating Integrated Urban Data Exchange base to collaborate with various departments in order to build data exchange harmony.”

The company has signed up with listed companies like SoftTech Engineers to integrate Transerve platform with their solutions to provide enhanced value to 900 ULBs where SoftTech has a presence. Currently, the company is in discussions with various state governments to enter into formal agreement for technology transfer and handholding to embrace emerging spatial technology with machine learning and artificial intelligence to help various government departments.

Additionally, the company also focuses on maximising social impact and hence work closely with multi-lateral agencies like AFD, GIZ etc to bring technology intervention for social impact.