Ahmedabad Buses to Get AI Dashcams for City Repairs

What if every city bus became a repair request on wheels? Ahmedabad is making it happen with a system that turns public transit into city problem solvers.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is installing 1,000 AI-powered dashcams across its fleet of city buses. These smart cameras will automatically detect over 40 types of civic issues as buses travel their daily routes, from potholes and broken streetlights to illegal parking and damaged speed breakers.

Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani explained the thinking behind the project. "As it is difficult to manually track all these cases, it has been decided to use technology," he told The Indian Express.

The system works by placing up to three cameras on each vehicle. One camera watches the left side of the street, another monitors the road surface, and a third focuses on the center of the road. The AI software analyzes the video feeds in real time, day and night, with 80% accuracy.

Ahmedabad's bus network provides perfect coverage for this monitoring system. The city operates 1,000 regular buses across 225 routes, plus 325 rapid transit buses running through a dedicated 100-kilometer corridor. Together, they cover nearly every street in Gujarat's biggest city multiple times daily.

The cameras will flag issues ranging from the serious to the mundane. They'll spot open drains and manholes, identify cattle wandering on roads, and even detect garbage dumping. The system will report encroachments, tangled electrical wires, and unauthorized posters plastered on public property.

Smart City Ahmedabad Development Limited will execute the project. Tenders for the installation close on January 30, with the first cameras expected to go live soon after.

The Ripple Effect

This mobile monitoring approach could change how cities maintain themselves. Instead of waiting for complaints or sending inspectors on manual patrols, Ahmedabad will have eyes everywhere its buses go. Problems get reported the moment they appear, not weeks or months later.

The system also creates accountability. When issues are logged automatically with video evidence and GPS coordinates, they become harder to ignore. City departments will know exactly what needs fixing and where.

Other Indian cities are already watching Ahmedabad's experiment. If successful, this bus-mounted surveillance could become a blueprint for smart city infrastructure management across the country. The same cameras installed on garbage trucks, postal vehicles, or delivery vans could extend coverage even further.

For Ahmedabad residents, the promise is simple: faster fixes mean safer streets, smoother commutes, and a city that responds to problems before they grow into crises.

Technology is turning everyday buses into guardians of urban life.

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