Preparation of Indian PM Narendra Modi and Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Road show in Ahmedabad on Tuesday

AHMEDABAD: If this part of the smart city plan of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) works out fine, you may be able to walk into a BRTS bus without buying a ticket or screeing your Janmitra card. The AMC is exploring collaboration with an Israel-based firm to use its facial recognition technology for hands-free access to public transport. The civc body plans to implement it as part of its smart-city related projects.

Representatives of a security devices manufacturing company met municipal commissioner, Mukesh Kumar , last week to discuss this.

Kumar said that the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI) had invited AMC officials last week for a discussion with some company from Israel .

“The company is known for its security solutions,” he said.

“We are trying to explore how the facial recognition technology can be used for a variety of applications, one of them being easy access to public transport. The face which is a person’s identification can be linked with one’s Janmitra card so that there is no need to explicitly screen persons at the entry point,” Kumar said.

A committee of three people from the AMC’s smart city team has been formed to explore possibilities for the pilot project. In addition to easy access to public transport, the AMC also plans to explore other uses. The civic body is already in the process of installing some 7,000 CCTV cameras to bring the city under surveillance.

“This will provide us with tremendous amount of data which we will be used for area traffic control, regulating parking and other municipal tasks. The team is also exploring if this can be linked with a facial recognition technology to develop a security feature,” Kumar said.

“For instance, if a theft occurs in one part of the city and the thieves are seen on camera, using technologies such as artificial intelligence, we can identify their current whereabouts. This is just one of the many applications for which our existing system can be broad-based,” the municipal commissioner said.

AMC is currently working with an ‘original equipment manufacturer’ in Israel for smart city-related projects.

