Smart Anandababu becomes the icon of smart city project

KOLKATA: The blue sari wrapped puppet like icon of Buladi had risen to fame championing the cause of spreading awareness about AIDS and now its Smart Anandababu who would be the icon for smart city projects in Kolkata. The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) is now planning to follow the ‘Buladi’ way to reach out to residents of New Town. The icon would be used by NKDA to increase interactivity between the residents and the authority.

Smart Anandababu would be planted as a help that will always be around to listen out to grievances and help people sorting their grievances.

While portals, apps and all other social media platforms have been put together by authorities at different levels officials at NKDA said that officials said that the interaction between the authority and the residents needed to have a human face, a person people can relate to and hence the ‘ Anandababu’ ídea has been conceptualised.

For putting in more interactivity, there would also be a control room that will provide time bound results on the actions being taken after a complaint has been lodged with Anandababu. This would be implemented by sending out feedback text messages to the complainant on his or her mobile phone.

The authorities are also holding ‘Smart Fridays’ where interactions are taking place with citizens of the township to discuss on the smart city initiatives.