Drones keep an eye on provincial projects

THE Gauteng department of infrastructure development has launched a programme using drones to monitor the progress of projects across the province.

The initiative – launched in Etwatwa‚ Ekurhuleni‚ yesterday – uses drones in tandem with the nerve centre of the department‚ called Lutsinga Infrastructure House.

It combines human intelligence‚ business intelligence and now also artificial intelligence to ensure that the entire value chain of project delivery is efficient and that projects are delivered in time‚ within cost and at the right quality.

“It is possible for the public sector to be efficient and to be productive in what we do and that is exactly what we are demonstrating today. One of the things that we have looked at is that globally infrastructure performance is lagging behind other industries. Therefore over the past two years we’ve been working hard to introduce efficiencies across the value chain of development‚” said infrastructure development MEC Jacob Mamabolo.

Through the drone project‚ the department ensures that construction work is done in line with work schedules.

The drone also helps in the monitoring of safety compliance on construction sites to ensure that it meets health standards. The programme allows the department to identify blockages in the delivery of construction projects so that it can visit sites‚ troubleshoot and intervene to improve project management performance and productivity.

Drones have been piloted by the department since early January.

Over the next three years‚ the Gauteng department of infrastructure development has committed to delivering 340 projects valued at about R4.5-billion “on time‚ within cost and at the right quality”.

Earlier this month‚ the department publicly unveiled a threeyear portfolio of all its community infrastructure projects‚ including new schools‚ libraries‚ clinics‚ licensing centres and community centres‚ following two years of planning to manage its vast and complex projects.

The project pipeline will be used to prioritise projects which are ready for implementation for tracking and monitoring to improve project management processes and to speed up delivery to Gauteng communities.

The department will also be able to improve its reporting by ensuring that all information is gathered from one source. Most importantly‚ the monitoring of project performance will further enable the department to proactively manage compliance issues largely residing in other spheres of government‚ such as local municipalities. —