4 min readAhmedabadJul 17, 2026 09:03 PM IST
First published on: Jul 17, 2026 at 08:30 PM IST
If a traffic congestion occurs around the 44-km busy Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway connecting Ahmedabad and the state capital, simulated models using data on the route will help urban planners resolve it. The SG highway has around 10 flyovers and more are in the pipeline, all purported to ease traffic movement along the route. But collecting all this information is a tough task. These kinds of problems will now be fixed by an ‘urban observatory’ to be set up by the Gujarat government, in line with other major cities around the world.
A committee to set up the ‘State Urban Observatory and Artificial Intelligence Cell’ was notified earlier this month by Commissioner of Municipalities Administration Remya Mohan, who is also its chairperson.
The observatory, official sources say, will serve as an “intelligence network” to produce, disseminate and integrate data to address issues such as traffic congestion, infrastructure gaps, extreme weather events like floods, changing demography and others.
For instance, if the traffic congestion around the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway during the morning rush hour is presented as a problem, the Urban Observatory would collect and integrate information from traffic surveillance cameras, GPS from buses, roadworks in progress, weather forecasts, traffic signals, and citizen complaints. “It will then create a single operational picture of what is happening in the city,” says one of the committee members.
An Artificial Intelligence layer, informed by traffic engineering principles, is enabled to identify whether the congestion is due to high traffic volume alone. If not, it will identify other reasons for the congestion such as a lane closure, rainfall and a nearby school opening. It then evaluates alternative signal timings and diversion routes, estimates their impact, and recommends the policy options that minimize travel delays through the route.
“The observatory asks: What is happening? The AI helps answer: ‘Why is it happening, and what should we do?’,” one of the officials associated with the development said.
“The idea is to assess and analyse urban issues, and offer scientific solutions backed by data – under one roof,” the official said.
The committee held its first meeting last week to formalise the establishment of State Urban Observatory and AI Cell. The committee will also provide strategic guidance, facilitate inter-departmental coordination, oversee project implementation and ensure timely development and operationalisation of the observatory.
According to an official note, seen by The Indian Express, the proposed Urban Observatory (UO) for Gujarat will be a centralised platform to collect, integrate, analyse and visualise real-time and periodic data pertaining to urban services, environment, mobility, infrastructure, utilities, and citizen behaviour.
“…Complementing the Urban Observatory, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cell will leverage these datasets to develop machine-learning models and predictive analytics for infrastructure planning, undertake scenario-based simulations, and generate AI-driven insights to facilitate proactive maintenance, efficient resource utilisation, and informed policy formulation,” the note says.
Chaired by Commissioner of Municipalities Administration, the committee to formalise the observatory has five other state government officers including town planners, engineers and information and communications technology experts and three invited members (academic and subject experts).
Recommended in 2025
The cell was formed a year after a high-level committee on urban planning headed by former World Bank director and former IAS officer Keshav Varma released a report in April 2025 recommending a State Urban Observatory citing how Gujarat’s urban transformation requires “continuous and actionable data”.
The report had defined the urban observatory as a statewide urban intelligence network responsible for producing, managing and disseminating high quality urban data. “It will support evidence-based decision making and policy design for the state government and urban local bodies, through the knowledge repository/ information system that it builds”, the report had said.
Urban Observatories were first developed by the UN-Habitat whose Global Urban Observatory Unit oversees 374 such observatories across the world. According to its website, Saudi Arabia is among the leading countries with 17 functional urban observatories in their cities.
The proposed Urban Observatory (UO) for Gujarat will be a centralised platform to collect, integrate, analyse and visualise real-time and periodic data pertaining to urban services, environment, mobility, infrastructure, utilities, and citizen behaviour. (Photo generated using AI) 
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