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Zurich-based multinational corporation ABB is eyeing opportunities in India’s smart cities mission and aims to deploy solutions such as smart grids to resource management (water and electricity) apart from smart transportation in such cities.
“A smart city is a very holistic concept. We can contribute when it comes to energy efficiency, and mobility,” Tarak Mehta, Global Head of Smart Cities Business, ABB Ltd, said.
Mehta, who was here to participate in its flagship global programme Automation and Power World 2015, told BusinessLine: “In India, the company can offer solutions for power quality. The solution depends on the application and the quality of power a city needs.”
“We have UPS that ensure uninterruptible power, compensation systems, harmonic filtering solutions, among others,” he said.
Focus on mobility The other area is mobility. “We can offer eco-friendly hybrid electrical vehicles with the entire electrical infrastructure for e-mobility. We have done this across Norway. We have a huge contract in China,” Mehta added.
Globally, the company has deployed various solutions in smart cities. It offers city wide Wi-Fi network called Troops in Venice, Electric buses in Geneva, Luxembourg, rural smart grid in Sweden and smart grid solutions in Oklahoma and Houston. It has also deployed waste to energy solution in Lisbon, Portugal, apart from facilitating district cooling on a mass scale (a large group or cluster of buildings) in Singapore.
In August this year, the Centre had announced the list of 98 shortlisted smart city aspirants. These cities are currently preparing smart city proposals that will be judged by the Centre on credibility of implementation, city vision and strategy, economic and environmental impacts, cost effectiveness, innovation and scalability, citizen implementation, etc.
Top 20 scoring cities will be chosen by December and ₹200 crore per city will be provided by Centre in the first year, followed by ₹100 crore each year for the next three years.
On what is the size of the business opportunity for the company with respect to India’s smart cities, Mehta said, “We have to evaluate once January comes and it is clear what the scope is. Based on the funding, one can estimate the business opportunity. Once the city Mayor knows their budget, then we can discuss the solutions under their budget. It will be a city by city process, depending on each city’s priority.”
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