BMC fixes glitches, WhatsApp chatbot now up to date

The chatbot shows the updated data for A ward; (right) The chatbot shows information of H-East ward

Old data on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's WhatsApp chatbot facility has been updated following a mid-day report pointing at outdated information, some as old as a year.

The WhatsApp chatbot facility offering over 80 citizen-related services was launched by the BMC last Friday. Though the facility aims at providing various web links and assistance to citizens, businessmen and tourists, the ward level information about assistant commissioner, complaint officer and fire station in-charge was found to be at least a year old. Even data of several subordinate officers, fire officials was also old.

The process of making the WhatsApp facility started a few months ago, but the IT team had used year-old data. For example, the app shows Ashok Khairnar, who succumbed to COVID-19 in July 2020, as assistant commissioner of H-East ward. Following the mid-day report, the data has been updated and it now shows Alaka Sasane as assistant commissioner of H East ward.

"We have updated the data and are working on syncing new data across all digital platforms such as website, Twitter. We are thinking of adding the contact information of other services and upgrading the service in the future," said Sharad Ughade, director of the Information Technology (IT) department.

How to use BMC's WhatsApp chatbot

Users need to send the message ‘Namaskar' in Marathi and ‘Hello' or ‘Hi' in English on 8999-22-8999, which will take them to the option of selecting the language between Marathi or English. After this, the user needs to pick one of the three: citizen, business or tourist.

Information related to services and facilities such as hospitals, COVID care centres, schools, parks, tourist places, firefighting centres etc., including relevant addresses and contact numbers of 24 wards, is available on the chatbot, making it more accessible for citizens.