Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation sets up war room to monitor drain desilting works across Mumbai 

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has set up a ‘war room’ to monitor drain desilting works in Mumbai. The desilting works of both major and minor drains are progressing steadily and to ensure its effective surveillance, the war room has been operating in two shifts. Reportedly, it is managed by a team of three people including an engineer. The contractors undertaking the desilting works are required to submit proof of work in the form of photos/videos before and after the desilting of small drains. Besides, advanced technologies like artificial intelligence are being used to review the footage. The system flags anomalies like reused clips or tampered uploads and these are reviewed via manual verification.  It also detects off-route dumping and flags vehicles carrying unusually heavy loads. The progress of the desilting works can be tracked by the public on a real-time basis through a public dashboard. Further, all the major drains and the Mithi river in Mumbai have been georeferenced, allowing the surveillance system to track each vehicle’s movements.