German auto components major Bosch is all set to tap the opportunities to be generated by the government's Smart Cities initiative, a top official said today. "We expect the RFPs (request for proposals) to be released in next few months time and when they come, we would definitely participate in the tender process to tap the opportunities expected to be generated by the Smart Cities initiative launched by the union government," Bosch India.
Smart City Head Dhiraj Wali told PTI here. India plans to have 100 such cities by 2022. Sixty have been chosen, including 20 in January and 13 in May. The remaining will be picked by 2018. Meant to change the way urban India lives, smart cities will enjoy uninterrupted power and water supply, internet connectivity, e-governance along with quality infrastructure.
Wali, however, said Bosch will not focus on all the 100 cities, but on 10 to 11 sites, including Chennai and Bengaluru. "We have not focused ourselves on all cities, but identified some cities. For example we are focusing on six cities in Karnataka. We are also focusing on Pune, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, and Kochi. Right now, we are focusing on ten to eleven cities," he said.
The company, before the announcement of the actual tenders and contracts, has chalked out smart cities solutions, focusing on intelligent traffic management, transport system, parking management and citizen safety and security, Wali said. "For instance, the pilot project is ready and has been implemented in Bengaluru," he said. Wali said the company is not a novice in building smart cities.
"Bosch is not new in the smart city domain. We have been doing projects worldwide at various places. We have done a pilot in Monaco, Singapore, a city in Austria, Stuttgart in Germany and few other places," he said. However, these solutions may not work in India as the country has problems in variance with other countries round the globe, Wali said. Bosch has also been in touch with the government to identify problem areas, Wali said.
A 'smart city' is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications and market viability. It is a city where information technology is the principal infrastructure and the basis for providing essential services to residents. There are many technological platforms involved, including but not limited to automated sensor networks and data centres.
