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Indore civic staff to be tracked via GPS-enabled smart watches

Indore: The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) in Madhya Pradesh will track its 10,000-odd employees through Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled wrist watches that will be provided to them, an official said Monday.

The move will enhance professional efficiency of employees and record their attendance, said civic commissioner Ashish Singh.

The civic body of Indore, adjudged the cleanest city in the country in March this year, will also monitor the movement of its 600 garbage carrying vehicles through the GPS, he said.

"It’s our top priority to maintain the No. 1 position of Indore in cleanliness. We will need to increase the efficiency of our employees to improve the level of other services along with cleanliness.

"To achieve this aim, we are going to take help of GPS technology beside adopting other ways," Singh told .

"We have ordered a company to supply 10,000 GPS- enabled smart watches in the first round. These watches are being taken on a monthly rent of Rs 300 each. Their supply is likely to start from the next week," he said.

He said the IMC, which has 85 wards, has also started a pilot project to monitor the movement of 600 vehicles that collect garbage in the city through GPS.

Under the project, a private IT firm has prepared a special software. This software will prepare a detailed performance report of the drivers of these vehicles.

The commissioner said, "We have tested this project in 50 per cent of the wards. It was ascertained whether or not the garbage vehicles were using their designated routes. The time taken by these vehicles for door-to-door garbage collection is also estimated."

Elaborating on the smart watch project, Singh said he and other IMC employees and officers, including additional and deputy commissioners, engineers and workers (totalling around 10,000) engaged in sanitation work, would wear the device during their duty hours.

"With the help of this gadget, we will be able to check easily whether or not employees engaged in sanitation work are doing their duty properly at the field level. The watch would record their duty time and register attendance at their workplace," the civic chief said.

Singh said a control room is being set up to monitor the real-time movement of IMC’s garbage vehicles and track employees with the help of GPS.