Smart Cities Project: Foreign Collaborations, Investments on Focus

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Smart Cities Project ImageEricsson Joins Sterlite for Smart Cities Project in India

Ericsson, one of the leading telecom equipment manufacturers around the world, has entered into a partnership with Sterlite Technologies to collaborate and create smart cities in India that can be sustained over a longer period of time. As per the contract reached, both will come up with a development plan and use services and solutions that are necessary in order to bring about a society that is based on knowledge and also completely functional.

Together, the companies will design, integrate, employ, and take care of solutions in a wide array of areas such as communications, smart grid solutions, public safety, and intelligent transport. Indian Government is looking to establish 100 smart cities before 2022 and initiatives such as these are supposed to play a major role in realizing that aim. The technological solutions this collaboration is likely to create will help the government amend existing infrastructural operations since they will be able to share real-time information with all systems and agencies.

Anand Agarwal, CEO of Sterlite Technologies, has said that his organization is collaborating closely with the national administration of India to launch initiatives for sustainable and smart cities and also get these programmes up and running. It is also aiding the Digital India programme of Indian Government and the association with Ericsson is supposed to help in executing the same.

The following solutions are included in this programme:

  • Communications – fibre deployment and Wi-fi networks
  • Intelligent transport – fleet management and traffic management
  • Public safety – emergency response and video-based situational awareness solutions
  • Smart grid solutions – smart metering and smart grid communications

Chris Houghton, the head of Ericsson India, has said that the telecom gear manufacturer is essaying a rather important role with regards to creating a networked society.

UAE Company Partners with Indian Firm for Smart Cities Project

Tasweek Real Estate Development, a real estate organisation based in Abu Dhabi, is said to have shown interest in becoming a part of the Smart Cities project. It has also entered into a strategic partnership with MAMS Holding Group, a construction firm based in India with operations across countries. Both these companies would focus on construction projects enabled with ‘smart’ technologies. They will also focus on investment prospects even in GCC countries (such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE) for affordable housing in India.

Officers of both the companies recently met at Uttar Pradesh where CM Akhilesh Yadav was in attendance as well. The CM expressed his interest in providing affordable and technologically well-equipped housing solutions. He also wants to create 2 lakh low-cost homes in Uttar Pradesh in the years ahead.

In the 2015 national budget, the Indian Government has made separate arrangements for smart living and technology-efficient practices in general. The government has set apart $1 bn in order to carry out its Urban Rejuvenation Mission and allotted $84 mn for development of 100 smart cities.

Masood Al Awar, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi firm, considered the cooperation as timely and strategic as his company will get access to its partner’s knowledge of Indian market. The firm will also look for potential projects at other parts of the country such as Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kolkata.

The experts are optimistic about the fact that this year’s budget will help add investment to sectors such as infrastructure, innovation, tourism, ease of living, and renewable energy. If the government’s plans are properly carried out then sooner rather than later every state in India will have a smart city.

ZTEsoft Invests in Smart Cities Project

ZTEsoft, the software arm of ZTE, one of the most well-known telecom equipment makers from China, has invested in the Smart Cities project by signing a MoU with Gujarat Government. As per contract, both parties will first identify an area or a city that can become a smart city in future and then do a short trial of sorts.

If reports in local media are to be believed, Gujarat Government is looking to construct a minimum of seven smart cities across the state. Ben Zhou, CEO of ZTEsoft International, has said that his organisation will invest around INR 500 crore in the project in the course of five years. As per Zhou, the company is also looking to invest INR 40 crore to setup a dedicated centre of excellence to deal with various project of smart cities in India.

Prasoon Sharma, Managing Director for Enterprise Business, ZTEsoft India and South Asia, has stated that the company has already consented to the funds that will be used for the aforementioned projects. This means that as soon as the company signs a new project it will have the technology and other resources ready to carry out the same.

 

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