DoT Unveils Telecom-Driven Digital Twins to Inform Smarter Transport & City Planning
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Institutions: Ministry of Communications | Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA)
At India Mobile Congress 2025, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) showcased a new Mobility Digital Twin — a digital model that mirrors real city movements using telecom data and artificial intelligence. It can track how people travel, plan better bus routes, manage tourist inflows, and even create “green corridors” that give ambulances or emergency vehicles faster passage.
The pilot showed how live telecom signals can be turned into Origination–Destination (OD) maps, helping city planners see where people start and end their journeys. Another demo in Ayodhya used similar data to understand tourist flows, guiding infrastructure and transport decisions at busy destinations. The initiative forms part of Project Sangam, where DoT and MoHUA are developing a shared regulatory sandbox and toolkit for using telecom-based digital twins in urban and transport planning.
Digital twins turn routine telecom data into planning intelligence. By linking Digital India and urban mobility missions, India can move from one-time master plans to data-driven, real-time planning. This approach can cut congestion, lower emissions, and improve public safety while ensuring that data use stays secure, consent-based, and transparent.
What is a Digital Twin? → A virtual model of a real system, like a city or road network, that uses live data to test what would happen if routes, signals, or policies change.
What is Project Sangam? → A joint initiative of the DoT to bring together government, startups, and researchers to test telecom-driven innovations for public services such as transport, infrastructure, and safety.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders:
Can India’s city and transport agencies adopt digital twin planning tools at scale while maintaining strong data privacy and inter-agency coordination?
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