Work to build smart cities in Bahrain to begin in 2018

Manama : The Kingdom is set to take a big leap towards building smart cities on the Island as the authorities prepare to map three dimensional model of entire cities in the next few years. 

Steps to build smart cities will be taken by the government in 2018 and 2019 – - initial tests and documentation will start in 2018 with implementation in 2019, Central Informatics Organization (CIO) Director General of Information Systems Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa told DT News. 

“The government is now working on documenting everything three dimensionally, weather it is below ground or above ground. That initiative will open up the doors for you to design buildings three dimensionally, see the impact three dimensionally, see the impact on the sewage system or power grid etc,” Shaikh Salman said.

“The first phase is to document. Beginning of next year, we are going to do a three-dimensional trial in Manama. A lot of the projects in 2018 is related to documenting the Kingdom three dimensionally whether above ground or below ground,” Shaikh Salman said.

“It is not one entity’s job, it is 7 to 8 entities doing it together. For instance, you need EWA to define what is below ground, you need the road directorate, the Works Ministry etc. You need a unified approach in 2018. The reasons we have trial is because we need to do a non-invasive scanning of underground utilities. Scan will show the electric cables, sewage pipe, water pipes, type of soil. The scan will reveal the obstacles you might face. This is why you need trial. So we will do the trial next year and if it is successful you will face mass deployment in 2019. The collected data will be added to all governments and architects so they can use it in planning big projects and then we can start Building Information Modeling (BIM),” he said. 

“The priority right now is to transition into 3D and collaborate using 3D. The real fruits of the efforts will be seen in 2020,” he added while speaking to DT News on the sidelines of an event marking GIS day organized by Microcenter. During the event experts discussed the latest developments in the field. 

Dr. Ghulum Bakiri, President of MicroCenter, elaborated and gave his views on smart cities.  “Smart cities is not just a name, there are things that needs to be built into the city to make it smart. One important thing is that the initial design by the city needs to be sustainable and environmentally friendly and have zero carbon emissions. It has to be efficient in terms of transportation. Smart cities also means that you have a complete model in all dimensions not only outside the buildings but you should know how they are interconnected inside the buildings,” he said.