Smart Townships : Win-win for Tenants & Investors!

Smart Townships is a collective term for digitization of air/sea ports, large living/work places and commercial buildings to make them more Convenient, Comfortable, Secure for the benefits of tenants and Sustainable and Efficient for the benefit of owners and investors.

Smartness means enhancements on top of the basic amenities like Township security, shuttle services, vehicle parking, indoor/outdoor lighting, air condition (AC), energy monitoring etc to provide additional Convenience and Comfort to the tenants (one of the important drivers for employee satisfaction and productivity at work places) and also make the Township operations efficient and sustainable. In addition to the smartness of the individual solutions it is also important to integrate all of them into a Township command and control platform for central monitoring, operations and optimizations across inter dependent solutions.

Smart Solutions : Smart Township solutions are mega IoT solutions with sensors/cameras in the field for monitoring, Network switch/Gateways send the data through wireless/fiber connectivity to the data center, where the applications are hosted to provide the targeted functionality/experience to the operations and also to the end users. The top 10 Smart Township solutions are listed below.

?1. Smart Commute: In the case of home-office shuttles, the Expected Time of Arrival (ETA) and live tracking of the shuttles are provided to the tenants through the mobile application. In the case if inter/intra campus shuttles the ETA could be displayed on the digital displays at the designated bus stops in addition to the mobile application. E-bikes and scientifically designed walkways will make the campus less cluttered, green and also make the tenants healthier and more social. 

2. Smart Parking: Parking slot search is time consuming and frustrating even in township environments. The available slots in, visitor, multi-level and special parking lots are informed to the vehicle users through digital displays and mobile application. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) or RFID based access management for tenants as well as visitors will add to the convenience. 

3. Smart Security: Video analytics based face recognition, access management, alerts on intrusion and suspected scenarios will enhance campus security and operational efficiency. High speed driving detection, alerts and automated communication to the tenants and concerned campus management will enhance driving discipline and also the pedestrian safety.

4. Smart Air Condition (AC) : The AC consumes highest energy in buildings and hence invites high recurring expenses too. Occupancy and indoor air quality based AC management will reduce energy consumption by 15-20% and enhance comfort. Since the Smart AC will be wireless connected, the wiring costs also reduces by 20-25% capex costs in comparison to conventional AC installations.

5. Smart Lighting: Switching/dimming of the of the indoor/outdoor lights based on people movement and ambient light would add to energy conservation by 20-30%. The increased life expectancy of the lights would also add to the benefits.

6. Smart Energy : Energy is one of the biggest cost in Townships. Monitoring energy consumption of specific equipment at section/floor level will provide meaningful insights into consumption patterns, anomalies and recommendations to fix them.

7. Smart Work place: Conference rooms booked are many times not occupied and hence there is an artificial shortage in most of the offices. Releasing a conference room back to pool if it is not occupied within a specified time could solve this shortage to a great extent. Additionally, lighting management during projections would add to convenience and occupancy/air quality based Smart AC will add to the comfort too.

Work space availability also face similar challenge though there will be empty work spaces of the people travelling, on vacation, working from home/another location etc. Dynamic work place booking/allotment could enhance the space availability and utilization saving the huge real estate costs.

8. Visitor Management : Allowing the visitor's vehicle based on Automatic Number Plate Recognition(ANPR), printing the visitor pass based on Face recognition/QR code and guidance to reach the meeting point will make it easy for visitors as well as sponsors. Indoor location and guidance to common places, conference rooms etc would be very useful for the visitors and for that matter even for the regular tenants. 

9. Common place utilization: The crowd in common places like pantries, canteens, recreational centers etc, if monitored and informed to the tenants will help them stagger the common place usages and avoid waiting/crowding of these places and optimum utilization of these spaces.  

10. Command and control: System of systems to monitor and control all the functionalities in the Townships would bring efficiency and effectiveness in operations. The subsystems like access control, township security, fire protection, lifts etc will have their own systems, control panels and dash boards but also to be integrated into the township command and control through application interfaces. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) defined in the command and control allows optimizations across inter dependent solutions for example, if parking slots are empty, switch of the lights for those slots. 

The proposition :There is a high desirability form the Township developers and end users to have these functionalities to make the townships Convenient, Comfortable, Secure, Sustainable and Efficient (CoSSE). That is why it is growing at a CAGR of 26%! Since the townships involve large private capital investments and operation costs, the return on investment of these features is critical to make it affordable and sustainable. Many more features will come across as good to have but functionality versus flamboyance would be a good guideline while adding to the list to make it win-win for the Tenants and Investors. 

Your thoughts and comments are most welcome!

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