In cooperation with the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) and Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), the Ministry of Technology & Communications (MTC) launched the Knowledge Oasis Muscat Smart City pilot project. Cisco International Limited and Bahwan Information Technology implemented the project. The launching ceremony was held at Sas Center for 4th Industrial Revolution, KOM4, under the patronage of HE Eng. Azza Sulaiman Al Ismaili, Minister of Technology and Communications with the presence of a number of CEOs and officials.
The projects utilizes Internet of things and the various smart systems in the management of the Knowledge Oasis in a smart way that contributes to providing easy and fast services for its employees, as well as controlling the resources available within it, such as managing energy consumption, managing parking and organizing traffic. It also controls water resources, monitors the environment and the degree of air pollution, Vehicle identification, crowded spaces analysis and provision of smart trash containers.
Pilot Project
On this occasion, Dr. Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO at MTC said, “The main objective of this pilot project is to be an experimental model that contributes to providing an infrastructure for smart cities in the Sultanate. The decision makers and government entities can benefit from it as an applicable model in all governorates in the Sultanate. The launch of this project is held at Sas Center for 4th Industrial Revolution at MTC, which will train Omanis in the 4-IR technologies, such as IoT, AI, Blockchain and others. We hope that this center will play a vital role in developing ICT industry in the Sultanate and keep abreast of the new technologies.”
Smart solutions
Talal bin Said Al Mamari, CEO of Omantel commented: “Omantel seeks to provide the latest innovations in the field of information and communications within the solutions packages that we provide to our subscribers. Since the establishment of ICT unit in the company, we have been able to provide the latest solutions and services to many government entities and major projects and companies in the Sultanate. Omantel and MTC partnership in smart cities field is one of the existing partnerships to achieve the Smart City vision in the Sultanate, and we hope that this project will provide an ideal environment for smart cities and contribute to the consolidation of the importance of providing smart services in the different area of the Sultanate.”
Al Mamari added, “We encourage other entities to implement smart solutions to support their business specifically and the Sultanate directions in general. Omantel signed MoUs with Muscat Municipality and Special Economic Zone at Duqm (SEZD) to transform Muscat, Sohar and Duqm to smart cities.”
The ceremony included a visual presentation by Cisco on KOM smart city system, which highlighted the benefits of the project in crowd control in KOM, monitor vehicles in an advanced database that enables quick data analysis, as well as to control water and electricity usage and get clear percentages of air pollution in the area.