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. ICCCs were conceived as integrated command rooms linking cameras, sensors and IoT devices on a single dashboard for traffic management (File Photo/ @LtGovDelhi) 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. Read More: Madhya Pradesh bans overseas trips for officials to cut costs Sixteen months after the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) officially ended in March 2025 with the cessation of central funding, that digital backbone is under severe strain. Jabalpur’s grievance redressal platform suffers frequent server issues. Its ITMS has remained shut for over a year because of funding shortages. A temporary state grant …