smartcitiesmission.com
Title card: Digital Twins in Indian Cities
e-Governance

Digital Twins in Indian Cities: Where Adoption Stands

Smart City Bot

A few years ago, a “digital twin” of an Indian city sounded like something from a conference slide. Today it is a working tool. In Varanasi, officials used a 3D digital twin during this year’s monsoon to see which areas and how many houses could be hit if the Ganga rose.[4] Guwahati, Amaravati and GIFT City have all commissioned twin platforms, and Delhi’s new master plan names one as a planning tool.[8][9][10][11]

This post looks at what a city digital twin actually is, which Indian examples can be verified from official or reputable sources, how national policy is pushing the idea, and what city and building owners should do before they buy one.

What a city digital twin is

A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical asset, process or service. The National Geospatial Policy 2022 describes the long-term goal as an ecosystem of smart, connected digital twins, built on secure and interoperable data.[1] In practice, a city twin usually has three layers:

  • A geometric base. A high-accuracy 3D model of terrain, roads and buildings, typically captured with aerial and mobile LiDAR, drone imagery and street-level panoramas.
  • Linked city data. Utilities, property records, master plan zoning, permits and other departmental datasets tied to the same map.
  • Live and simulated data. Feeds from CCTV, sensors and other systems, plus the ability to run ‘what if’ scenarios such as floods, crowds or new construction.

Many Indian projects today are strong on the first two layers and are still building the third. That is normal. A twin is only as useful as the data that keeps it current.

The national push

The National Geospatial Policy 2022, notified on 28 December 2022, sets milestones up to 2035. By then it aims to survey and map sub-surface infrastructure in major cities and towns and to develop a National Digital Twin of major urban centres.[1] The Union Budget for 2025-26 allocated ₹100 crore for a National Geospatial Mission to build foundational geospatial infrastructure and data for land records, urban planning and infrastructure design.[1]

In November 2023, the Survey of India signed its first agreement of this kind with a private mapping firm, Genesys International, to prepare 3D digital twins of Indian cities and towns, using Survey of India’s network of Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) for positional accuracy.[2] At the time, The Hindu reported that the company had already built twins of Ayodhya, the Dharavi cluster in Mumbai, Kochi and Kanpur.[2]

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is working on a different kind of twin. It launched the ‘Sangam: Digital Twin’ initiative with an Expression of Interest on 15 February 2024, and told the Lok Sabha in March 2025 that 169 applicants, including start-ups, had been selected.[12] At India Mobile Congress 2025, DoT showed telecom-derived mobility insights for corridors in New Delhi and tourist flows in Ayodhya. It also said DoT and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) are working through an inter-ministerial Joint Working Group on digital twins for urban mobility planning.[13]

Varanasi: the most documented example

Varanasi Smart City’s 3D Urban Spatial Digital Twin covers about 160 sq km of the Varanasi Municipal Corporation area. According to the Times of India, the survey involved over 23 hours of low-altitude aerial LiDAR flights, 1,838 line km of vehicle-mounted mapping and 1,055 line km of backpack mapping in the city’s narrow lanes.[3] Varanasi Smart City officials said the model has a ground resolution of 4 cm and contains more than 100 thematic layers.[3][4]

The twin is deployed in the Kashi Integrated Command and Control Centre and includes modules for solid waste, road works, water systems, crowd control and crime monitoring.[5] The Varanasi Development Authority uses the 3D model to update the master plan and process building permits.[3] The implementing company, Genesys, says more than 2,500 CCTV cameras across the city have been linked to the system for crowd management.[6]

The most practical use so far has been floods. In September 2026, the district administration said the twin and GIS data were helping it identify areas likely to be affected by rising water, possible waterlogging zones and the number of houses at risk, so that relief plans and resources could be prepared in advance.[4] The project received a SKOCH Gold Award 2025 in the urban development category.[5]

Other Indian cities on the same path

  • Ayodhya. In January 2024, the Ayodhya Development Authority chose Genesys’ map platform, which includes a 3D digital twin of the city and a change-detection feature, as the city’s official map.[7]
  • Guwahati. Genesys announced on 30 January 2026 that it had won an Urban Digital Twin Map Platform project for Guwahati worth about ₹13 crore, to bring maps, infrastructure data and civic assets into one system.[8]
  • Amaravati. The Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority’s Amaravati Integrated Digital Urban Planning and Governance Platform, which integrates the Amaravati Digital Twin with ICT platforms, won a Gold Award at the Economic Times GovTech Awards 2026 in the Smart Cities and Urban Tech category.[9]
  • GIFT City. Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited has awarded a work order of about ₹2.79 crore for a new GIFT City web portal along with an interactive digital twin platform, according to a July 2026 stock exchange filing by the contractor, DEV Information Technology.[10]
  • Delhi. The Master Plan for Delhi 2047, notified in August 2026, provides for the Delhi Development Authority to develop a digital twin of the city, combining GIS data with real-time inputs to test the likely impact of proposed developments.[11]

The pattern is clear. Smart City SPVs and development authorities are commissioning twins for planning, permits, disaster response and command-centre operations, and the projects are moving from pilot maps to day-to-day governance tools.

Where digital twins meet the ICCC and buildings

For most Indian cities, the natural home for a twin is the Integrated Command and Control Centre. The ICCC already brings cameras, traffic signals, environmental sensors and departmental dashboards onto one screen. A twin adds a shared 3D base map, so an operator can see a flood, a crowd or a fire in context: which buildings, which lanes and which assets are involved. Our Control Rooms guide covers how ICCCs are organised.

The city model also needs good building data. City twins usually show buildings from the outside. Inside, the detail comes from Building Information Modelling (BIM). We looked at this link in our post on how 3D building models and GIS help cities handle emergencies. Open standards make the connection possible: the OGC’s CityGML 3.0 standard defines a model for virtual 3D city models and is designed to integrate better with BIM and with dynamic sensor data.[14] For building information, the ISO 19650 series sets out how BIM information should be managed across an asset’s life, from design to day-to-day operation.[15]

What this means for city and building owners

  • Start with a problem, not a platform. Varanasi’s clearest win is flood planning. Pick one or two use cases, such as flooding, crowd management or building permits, and judge the twin by whether it improves them.
  • Own the data. Make sure the contract gives the city or owner rights to the base data, models and layers in open formats such as CityGML and IFC, so the twin is not locked to one vendor’s software.
  • Plan how it stays current. A 3D model ages the day it is delivered. Link updates to building permits, completion certificates and fire NOC renewals, and budget for periodic re-surveys.
  • Ask for BIM at handover. For new public buildings, hospitals, transport hubs and data centres, require as-built BIM models so they can feed the city twin and the building’s own systems.
  • Connect it to operations. A twin that is not used in the ICCC or the building’s control room becomes a showcase. Plan the integration with CCTV, BMS and alarm systems from day one. Our guide to designing a BMS for a control room covers the building side.
  • Secure it like critical infrastructure. A twin that holds detailed maps of utilities and live camera feeds is a sensitive asset. Apply CERT-In’s Cyber Security Guidelines for Smart City Infrastructure to access control, network segmentation and vendor management.[16]

Trisim’s view

In Trisim’s view, India’s digital twin story has moved past the demo stage. The cities that get the most value will be the ones that treat the twin as shared city infrastructure: built once to open standards, kept current through everyday processes such as permits and NOCs, linked to the command centre and secured from the start.

Need 3D models, BIM or a digital twin of your buildings? Talk to aigence Technologies.

aigence Technologies 3D modeling and BIM solutions

Sources

  1. Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Science & Technology), National Geospatial Policy 2022: Powering India’s Vision for Viksit Bharat, 27 February 2025
  2. The Hindu, In a first, Survey of India joins hands with private mapping firm for ‘Digital Twins’, 22 November 2023
  3. The Times of India, ‘Kashi first in nation to use 3D mapping for planning, devpt’, 25 April 2025
  4. The Times of India, 3D Digital Twin helps Kashi plan flood response in advance, 3 September 2026
  5. GIM International, Varanasi Smart City 3D digital twin project wins Indian urban development award, 14 January 2026
  6. Genesys International (BSE filing), Genesys’ Digital Twin Map Platform for Varanasi Wins Prestigious GovConnect Award, 8 December 2025
  7. The Times of India, Genesys’ 3D digital twin platform adopted as official map for Ayodhya, 10 January 2024
  8. The Hindu BusinessLine, Genesys International secures ₹13 crore Guwahati Digital Twin project, 3 February 2026
  9. The Hans India, APCRDA wins ‘Economic Times GovTech Award 2026’, 17 March 2026
  10. DEV Information Technology (BSE filing), DEV IT secures order from Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL), 1 July 2026
  11. Free Press Journal, Delhi To Get Digital Twin As Master Plan 2047 Takes Urban Planning Into 3D Era, 21 August 2026
  12. Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Communications), AI-driven Digital Twins (Lok Sabha written reply), 12 March 2025
  13. Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Communications), DoT’s Digital Twin with AI-Driven Insights initiative at India Mobile Congress 2025, 16 October 2025
  14. Open Geospatial Consortium, CityGML Standard, accessed 21 October 2026
  15. ISO, ISO 19650-1:2018, Information management using building information modelling: Concepts and principles, accessed 21 October 2026
  16. CERT-In, Cyber Security Guidelines for Smart City Infrastructure (CISG-2025-01), 17 February 2025

Leave a Reply