Two new laboratories at IIT-Kharagpur will help improve the operational management of infrastructure in towns and cities, the institute said in a statement on Monday. The Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics Laboratory and the Infrastructure Evaluation Laboratory were recently inaugurated at the Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management of IIT-Kharagpur, it said.

The laboratories will collect real-time data about the health of buildings, bridges and roads as well as air quality, temperature, humidity and traffic, the statement said.

The data collected will be mapped and used for carrying out analytics, modelling and simulation to formulate management policies, it said.

Head of the School, Prof Bhargab Maitra said that once the project is successfully implemented in the IIT-Kharagpur campus, the institute will think of scaling it up to the town and city levels.

"We will collect data using devices such as video cameras and sensors. The entire campus will become an experimental lab.

Various departments will be able to access the data to develop meaningful solutions in different application domains such as traffic, water, solid waste management, energy, building and roads among others," he said.

Institute director V K Tewari said there is an enormous potential for collaborative activities with public and private bodies for infrastructure projects and civic management.

"Today, all management and policy decisions are evidence-based. So, getting real-time accurate data -- both location and time-wise -- is very important," he said.