Amritsar tourism: Smart kiosks for a smart city

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, February 23

Under the Smart City project, ‘Explore Amritsar’, self-service tourist information kiosks are being installed in the city to assist tourists and local resiodents in finding key locations.

The Amritsar Smart City Limited (ASCL) would install these kiosks at 20 locations under the pilot project. The locations include War Memorial, Urban Haat, Partition Museum, Valmiki Tirath Sthal, VR Ambarsar, Basement, VR Ambarsar 5th Floor, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama, Durgiana Mandir, Sada Pind, Jallianwala Bagh Near Post Office, Hall Bazaar Ramada, Golden Temple Plaza, Naresh Multi Store, Mall of Amritsar Ground Floor, Mall of Amritsar 2nd Floor, Gobindgarh Fort, Shaheed Baba Deep Singh, Lawrence Road, Nehru Complex, Bus Stand Platform Number 8 and Bus Stand Platform Number 55.

Once operational, the Tourist Information Kiosk Centres

are expected to deliver several services, including information about the city, booking, transport and emergency. The kiosks are expected to support both push-pull type of information service. A Smart City official

“Once operational, the Tourist Information Kiosk Centres (ASCL) are expected to deliver several services, including information about city, booking, transport and emergency. The kiosks are expected to support both push-pull type of information service. Query-based information shall be made available within the kiosks. Location-based query at nearby tourist locations and driving directions, information on bus, train and Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) schedules would be available,” said Smart City officials

The officials claimed that tourism kiosk ensures more security and transparency to the tourism industry in booking tickets, flights, hotels and completing the transactions. The event tickets booking at tourist destinations would also be available.

In the emergency services, panic button, direct toll-free conversation with city administration departments, in-charge of emergencies would also be available. It would display information related to emergency services and related facilities around the kiosk area.

Besides, grievances and feedback services may be provided through kiosks to address various issues faced by tourists with respect to the city administration.

The set of services would be delivered via Kiosk Content Management Application which shall be flexible and user-friendly to allow extensive use by users of varying levels of technical knowledge.