IIT Kharagpur working to improve urban infrastructure management

At IIT-Kharagpur, two new laboratories are likely to improve the operational management of infrastructure in cities and towns, as per the official statement of the institute on Monday. At the Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management of IIT-Kharagpur, the Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics Laboratory and the Infrastructure Evaluation Laboratory were recently installed. As per the statement, the laboratories are slated to accumulate real-time data about the condition of bridges, roads, buildings, temperature, air quality, traffic, and humidity, etc.

The statement further informed that the data accumulated will be mapped and utilised for conducting modelling, simulation and analytics to frame management strategies. As per Professor Bhargab Maitra, Head of School, once the project is effectively applied in the IIT-Kharagpur campus, the organisation would give it a thought to scale it up to the city and town levels. He said that using devices such as video cameras and sensors, the collection of data will be done. The entire campus would be made an experimental lab.  

He, later on, said that several branches of the institute would be able to access the data to offer significant solutions in various application areas such as energy, building, roads, traffic, water, and solid waste management among others. The director of the institute, V K Tewari observed that there was a huge potential for cooperative activities with private and public bodies for infrastructure projects and civic management.  

He said that all management and policy decisions are based on evidence today. This is why having real-time accurate data in terms of location as well as time is utmost necessary.

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