Presenting a digital repository of for all housing information at inter and intra city level for identifying housing requirements, trends and development. It will provide a more robust mechanism for policy development, compliance, monitoring, implementation and research to Urban local bodies (ULB’s). It will serve as the base for all housing-related data in a city and empower city administrators and citizens make efficient and effective data-driven decisions that require prior attention related to housing in their city. The first pilot of project has been carried out in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC).
Allows data capturing for housing related basic services and utilities. This system utilizes out of the box survey tools for data capturing.
Can be utilized for development of master plans and availability of urban infrastructure.
The platform includes configurable applications that can help decision makers monitor all activities concerning housing sector.
Promotes review of housing regulations, environment and sustainability in terms of good quality of air/water, safe public spaces, disaster preparedness, health & sanitation etc.
Easy-to-configure platform that uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as the foundational element.
Comprehensive solution document guides through steps for development of the portal.
Organizations of any type and any size, including government agencies, non-profit groups and academia, can maximize its usage for different purposes.
Project ASHA is planned to be piloted in Visakhapatnam with the support of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) in early October 2020. Collation of relevant housing information at city level on this platform by Urban Local Bodies will help them leverage their existing housing related data and technology to work together with internal and external stakeholders to track progress, improve outcomes, and create vibrant communities. The platform is comprehensive in nature and covers wide areas of housing sector.
ASHA repository is very comprehensive with wide coverage of all aspects particularly sustainability and disaster management part. Such a repository is need of the hourto promote e-governance and regulations framework for housing related sector.
-K.K. Joadder, Former Chief Planner, TCPOTeam ASHA has put in great effort towards creating a fabulous data repository for the housing sector. Even though this one is conceptualized with Vizag town, I believe this can be interpolated for any city across the nation.
Head & Director
School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi
Programme Fellow, Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA
Expertise: Environment & Sustainability Expert
Programme Fellow, Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA
Expertise: Architect - Urban Planner
Programme Fellow, Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA
Expertise: Electrical Engineer
Programme Fellow, Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA
Expertise: Engineer - Urban Planner
To achieve the objectives of the project, team ASHA selected Visakhapatnam as the first pilot city. They made their first visit to Vizag on June 5, 2019. During the first phase of the project, ASHA team tried to understand the baseline condition, repetitive issues being faced by different departments in ULBs to ensure local governance, housing, transportation and basic civic amenities as well as how implementation of housing schemes are carried out and regulated. Visakhapatnam is also known as Vizag, it is located along the coast of Bay of Bengal. It is also the financial capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh and located on the north- east coast of the state. It is a port city and industrial hub of Andhra Pradesh. Visakhapatnam is a first city to come up with Integrated Control and Command Centre (ICCC) for better administration of the city and serving the citizens by using new technologies like GPS Tracking System, IOT sensors along with mobile and web application to improve and smoothen ground level mechanisms.
The team carried out literature review and deliberated on sustainable solutions in housing sector that can help city administration to tackle the housing problem. After various course corrections and expert consultations, the team prepared a concept paper and submitted for review to the panel. Post approval, team identified the key stakeholders and made preliminary data collection formats. Team also worked on number of presentations with vision, scope, anticipated outcomes and outputs of the project to get approval from the city. Team prepared a well-scheduled tour plan including officials to be met and information to be collected. Team ensured that city administration is informed in advance so that maximum utilization of time in the city could be achieved.
The team pitched idea and concept to city administration and received consent for the same. City administration gave inputs for its implementation and scope. The team explained the prerequisites for project execution which included support of IT partner and the appointment of one Nodal and Technical Officer from Smart City Team in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC.) It also requested the ULB administration for organizing meeting with all the identified stakeholders at the city level. After identification of an IT partner with the support of the administration team held a number of meetings and presentations with them. During the process, the technical team requested ASHA team to provide used cases. As the team had no experience in preparation of use cases it compelled the team to spend some quality time in the city. Meanwhile, the team also collected various data sets and interacted with Operations Manager ICCC. Team also drafted letters for concerned departments and prepared data collection formats to understand data symmetry in the city.
The team made close coordination with city officials and IT team for smooth execution of the project. As the project concepts were narrowed down only for the Urban Local Bodies (ULBS), changes in project orientation, project outcomes and deliverables were updated from time to time to the technical team. Team connected with various domain experts and stakeholders for scrutinizing and finalize the key use cases and organized them into different sub heads namely environment, disaster management, health, projects at glance, bye laws & regulations under housing. The prototype deployment is under development and is being developed by UNDP-GOI project team of Visakhapatnam in collaboration with ASHA team and Vizag Smart City team. The basic framework is built using the tools available in Esri software within ArcGIS Hub. The framework is easy to develop by any smart city and once its ready data can be added to it as and when it is available.
