India, July 20 -- When Covid-19 hit, Jabalpur's Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), like those in many of India's 100 Smart Cities, became the city's operational lifeline. Repurposed as the District Covid Command Centre, it tracked cases in real time, coordinated between departments and handled citizen distress calls. During the vaccination drive, the same digital backbone supported rollout efforts.

The ICCC also ran Jabalpur's Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS), detecting red-light violations and other traffic offences through cameras installed under a joint Madhya Pradesh government project covering Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Ujjain.

Sixteen months after the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) officially ended in March 2...