Bandra-Kurla Complex to be Mumbai’s first Smart District

The 175 hectare Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) is set to become the first smart district in India’s financial capital with authorities calling for bids to complete the project by the end of this financial year.

Under the Smart BKC project, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority plans to provide mainly five services – public wi-fi, smart parking to book a slot instead of going round looking for one, smart solar street lighting, a citizen portal or apps to spot utilities—or even help book a restaurant table – and video analytics-based CCTV cameras that can alert agencies about thefts or suspicious activities.

As part of the project, a smart parking concept will be implemented across all the 3,000 parking slots in BKC. Another environment-friendly initiative in the pipeline is the solar smart street lighting system. The system will be almanac-based, so that the brightness of the street light can increase or decrease according to the natural light and do away with wastage of power. Around 90 CCTV cameras with video analytics-based technology will be installed to boost security in the financial hub. This system will have the fixed geography of the area – houses, street furniture, etc – fed into its memory. Anything not matching the mapped memory, like an accident or an injured man on the road, will be spotted and alerts will be sent to hospitals and cops.