Globally, the urban population is growing by two persons a second. A host of challenges confronts city managers today like never before.

The task on hand is to make cities liveable, besides creating new ones to take on a burgeoning population. For global major Siemens, this, opens new vistas in city infrastructure.

Harnessing its in-house expertise across energy and industry segments, it has formulated a new vertical — infrastructure and cities (IC).

IC is designed to address the needs of cities as they continue to grow to accommodate the predominant urban shift of population.

Mr Tilak Raj Seth, Executive Vice-President, Infrastructure and Cities Sector Cluster Lead — South Asia, Siemens, in an interview with Business Line was more India-specific; he noted that 30 per cent of the country's population lives in cities. The number of people in cities will rise to 590 million in 2030, while 900 million more people would move in by 2050.

What opportunities does Siemens see for this newly created vertical?

City planners are not looking at isolated solutions for cities, whether it is power, distribution housing and water. All of them are sort of integrated. So, we put them together from within our portfolio.

The IC covers rail systems (rolling stock), mobility and logistics (traffic, transport and logistics management) low and medium voltage, smart grid (intelligent power grids) and building management systems.

Smart grid is the key to city efficiencies and competiveness, be it any kind of infrastructure.

How has Siemens reoriented its approach to address market needs?

Siemens has bundled its competencies and business activities in one unit to offer city solutions for mobility, environmental protection and energy savings. The unit will contain the mobility and building technologies divisions from the company's industry sector and the power distribution and smart grid divisions of its energy sector.

In short, the IC offers future-oriented products, services, IT and solutions pertaining to integrated transportation and mobility, energy distribution, energy automation and smart grid applications, safety and security, logistics (with special focus on environmental protection) and energy-saving solutions. (The global market for urban investments addressed by Siemens is currently €300 billion annually.)

What is your India footprint in this vertical?

We are working with the Railway and Metro projects, airports and cargo handling, ports and postal department.

For the T3 terminal at Delhi airport, we are providing the entire baggage-handling system. The entire signalling and electrification, besides baggage check-in system from the airport express link is from Siemens.

We are also providing an automatic cargo-handling system for the airport, where handling, storage and retrieval are mechanised and automated.

The signalling system for Delhi Metro Line 3 for 58 km is from Siemens.

The company is also providing a traffic-management system for the bus rapid transit system there.

For the Gurgaon Metro, Siemens, on turnkey, is providing electrification, signalling and depots, besides trains from overseas. The company is also doing electrification for Chennai and Kolkata metros.

For the Railways it offers under-carriages for bogeys from its Aurangabad factory.

It is providing energy smart-grid solutions to eight cities in Maharashtra.

For the Bangalore airport expansion project, Siemens has been given the energy distribution network. The contract is through L&T.

Siemens has a contract from the Varanasi Locomotive Factory for supply of propulsion equipment and motors.

In water management, the offering has so far been to industrial clients.

For the first time, India is getting letter-sorting machines and mixed-mail sorters at Delhi and Kolkata. The project is under commissioning. The system's optical readers have the ability to read handwritten pin codes without errors.

This apart, we are working in the power distribution segment across India for different entities.

Where else are you working on in South Asia?

We have power distribution projects in Colombo and Dhaka.

What other projects are you keen on?

We are keen to participate in the proposed locomotive manufacturing in Bihar as also in manufacturing of 5,000 electrical multiple units in West Bengal over 10 years.

Ideas for optimal use of power?

There is technology to ensure surplus power is fed back to the grid from any facility or machine. There is talk that even e-vehicles should be able to put back surplus power in them. It is not impossible, but the grid should permit it and have enough users on it.

The purple trains on Mumbai suburban rail network, fitted with Siemens propulsion equipment, save 30 per cent energy as the frequency of trains is very high. The logic is when in short draw and when in surplus give back.

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