A Smart Streets Lab to pilot innovative road-safety and women-safety solutions and leverage new developments in technology and IT to transform the streets of Hyderabad was launched on Thursday.
The initiative of the State government and WRI India Ross Center would focus on technological interventions — from interconnected and inter-networking smart devices (IoT) to product innovation — to make the streets secure, equitable and easy-to-navigate.
A release on the launch function, in which Principal Secretary (Information Technology) Jayesh Ranjan participated, said an online challenge seeking applications for projects designed to make Hyderabad’s streets ‘smart’ was also announced.
Under the challenge, innovations that are infrastructure-independent, easy to integrate into the existing systems, aid policy implementation, are affordable and create value for the entire ecosystem are being invited. It is open for projects led by civil society, entrepreneurs, technology companies, consortiums and partnerships. For details, visit www.wricitieshub.org/smartstreetslab.
In September, about 10 shortlisted projects will undergo an intensive boot camp —a training aimed at helping the innovators transition from a prototype stage to a revenue generation stage. DLABS — the incubation and acceleration arm of Indian School of Business, Bosch and WRI India will train the innovators on the pilot design and implementation. From October to December, the Lab will support the launch and operationalisation of a few pilot projects in the city, the release said.