You Won’t Believe How AI Is Keeping Mumbai’s Drains Clean This Year

As the monsoon draws near, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has achieved 43% of its pre-monsoon desilting work on the city's main and minor drains. In a preemptive measure, BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani made a moving appeal to the people, asking citizens to refrain from pouring waste-plastics and thermocol included-into drains, which is a major contributor to waterlogging during rain.

 

This year, the BMC has taken its efforts a notch higher by using Artificial Intelligence to oversee the desilting process. AI systems are checking more than 7,000 minutes of video footage uploaded by contractors, raising alarms about anomalies like recycled or doctored clips for human verification. The technology also monitors desilting vehicles in real-time to ensure that silt is actually removed and dumped at the appropriate sites. Any deviations, such as vehicles not discharging silt or proceeding in unauthorized ways, are quickly picked up and corrected.

 

There is a specific 'War Room' at the BMC headquarters working every day to monitor these activities, with real-time CCTV streaming and a public dashboard allowing residents to monitor activity in their locality. Flood-control valves and rubbish booms have also been positioned at strategic points to further act as barriers to blockages and flooding.

 

BMC's message is loud and clear: community cooperation is the key to keeping Mumbai flood-free this monsoon.

 

Sources: Times of India, Mid-Day, Free Press Journal