The uptake of initiatives concerning digitalisation of water transmission and distribution systems in India has recently picked up pace. These initiatives integrate advanced technology solutions for effective surveillance and monitoring of such systems. Moreover, digitalisation helps in tracking the progress and examination of operational gaps in projects. Softwares such as geographic information system (GIS) enables visualisation of the pipeline laying process through geolocations. Another technology platform that helps in monitoring a wide range of operations in water projects is a consumer operations management system. It accounts for the provision of household water service connections, consumer billings, revenue generation, customer management and consumer complaints.
Construction planning
Innovative application-based solutions provided by Unistal have fully integrated modules. These prove to be useful in a variety of cases ranging from the planning of the construction process to the maintenance and management of the water pipeline network. These are built using a geographic data model design and data can be imported to applications to plan the construction process as per project requirements. It is also possible to track the materials being used during the construction and installation process. For example, there are myriad mobile and web applications such as OpenPlant Modeler by Bentley and AutoCAD 3D by Autodesk that are used for the installation of DI pipes, HDPE pipelines and other fittings.
Grievance redressals
The integration of water pipelines with GIS facilitates easy management and quicker redressal of consumer complaints. The location of leakages and other issues can be immediately tracked and required action can be initiated. Similarly, comwater outage complaints can be resolved through locations shared by consumers.
Moreover, applications have the options of inventory and storage management. Designs can be put in using inbuilt application templates. These templates can also be customised as per user requirements. The complete management system can be incorporated in applications, including the tracking of product sales.
Forecasting plans
The digital applications available in the market are technically equipped for forecasting plans, sales and other aspects of water projects and firms. These features facilitate the creation of annual plans on the extent of construction to be carried out in a specific month, quarter or year.
The plan can also be designed in an area-specific manner. For example, it can be based on the district, village, taluka or block level. Additionally, the plan forecast or material requirement can also be obtained easily from the system. Moreover, the GPS accuracy of the users’ smartphones can be improved to less than a metre using global navigation satellite system receivers. This helps to get accurate and real-time data along with correct attribution using GPS during the laying process. It is possible to monitor various projects at diverse locations.
Visualisation and progress tracking
The applications also facilitate easy visualisation of construction. They are fully integrated with Google Earth APIs, which helps in obtaining different attributes such as pipe depth, node number and diameter. The applications also auto generate daily progress reports available in different formats. Moreover, the inbuilt GIS tracking systems in mobile applications and websites can efficiently track the information related to pipeline laying. There are systematic dropdowns incorporating all the information relating to different aspects of the project plan and design. These minimise the possibility of errors irrespective of the technical knowledge of the operator, with the detection of faults in details in details such as pipe diameter and location.
Additionally, the supply report of pipelines can be obtained in terms of the quantity received, quantity issued to the contractor and the balance at the yard. This aids in material tracking and reporting on a real-time basis, leading to quicker planning and decision-making. All pipelines, assets and consumers are captured and tracked using GPS and attributes.
Moreover, applications enable operators to compare the design and the actual progress of the projects. This helps with reporting any hindrances such as lack of permissions, incorrect terrain, etc. Quick reporting leads to rapid and better redressal of issues. Also, measurements generated from the application help to provide a detailed report on fittings, water consumption and location tracking. It is also possible to monitor the number of DI pipes laid, quantity of SDP steel, progress and completion of hydro tests in various districts, number of projects completed and number of water connections.
Consumers and payment gateways
These applications also provide a variety of consumer billing options, ranging from fixed rate billing to spot billing. In the consumer management domain, construction teams can conveniently enter the fittings installed at each consumer location along with GPS coordinates and photographs. One important advantage is the elimination of additional engagement with survey agencies to undertake a survey and capture the coordinates of fittings. In addition, these applications provide integration with payment gateways using which meter readers can recieve meter bills on the spot and issue them to consumers.
These digital tools also simplify the process of reporting and redressal of consumer complaints. For example, consumers can download the application and report any complaints ranging from water problems and contaminations to billing related issues. Furthermore, it is easy to track the consumer’s location using a GPS coordinator, and the technician or the operator can get a feasible road route to reach the consumer’s location and resolve the problem. For example, in case of pipeline damage, the complaint is reported from the location with GPS coordinates.
Easy accessibility
The application is a web-based system which can be accessed any time and anywhere. It can help generate all kinds of inspection reports and dynamic queries. All the forms and formats are customisable. Moreover, the report can be exported. In addition, as it is based on an open data structure, no special licences are required to use this application. Being fully integrated with Android Web and GIS, it also generates various graphs and charts automatically. Furthermore, the application uses panel cloud servers, which comply with the cybersecurity norms.
In sum
These applications are being used by private players in the water sector and are useful for detecting leakages and making water transmission more efficient. The other important feature of such applications is the provision of training to all users and stakeholders at the site level to get them adapted to the system quickly. They are incentivised to start using these applications at the site location. Also, a back-end GIS team ensures that the data being published on the website is correct and as per the norms. They are simple to set up, configure and use.
Furthermore, all details can be analysed on the system itself, using advanced technologies. The applications also have certified URLs based on a safe data encryption protocol. Also, the application communication protocols are all encoded using Ion Cube. Thus, no intervention can take place during the communication between the mobile and web applications. Additionally, secure login identities and IP-based restrictions are provided to various mobile and web users.
Thus, these advanced applications are futuristic, and secure and enable firms to conveniently solve tedious and time-consuming issues associated with water transmission and distribution.
Based on a presentation and remarks by Pankaj Mathur, Co-Founder and Director, Unistal Systems, at a recent India Infrastructure conference