Spanish consortium inks pact with CII for smart city projects

Manisha Choudhari | The Dollar Business

An Indian industry body has signed an agreement with a Spanish consortium to carry out various infrastructure and information technology related projects under the smart city mission. The MoU was signed on Thursday between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Spanish consortium led by information technology and defence systems company INDRA Systems Ltd. “This was the fifth such MoU that CII has signed on Smart City - earlier ones with German, US, Indian and Japanese Consortiums,” CII said in a statement. Speaking at the International Conference on Smart Mobility for Smart Cities held in New Delhi, Spanish Ambassador to India Gustavo de Arístegui said the new agreement will “foster” the Smart City Mission and “strengthen the economic relationship” between the two countries. He highlighted the Spanish competency in high-speed railway and sustainable metro systems across the world and said that Spanish firms are market leaders in India in various sectors According to Ravi Parthasarathy, Chairman of CII National Mission on Smart Cities, India which has been witnessing rapid growth of urban centres needs immediate creation of arterial and inter-city roads. He cited global examples saying that urbanization across the world has witnessed concentrated business centres with distant urban suburbs. Other experts who attended the event also emphasized on the need for investment in infrastructure and bridge the transportation gap within the country. Industry leaders believe that with the positive outlook, Indian infrastructure is expected to propel the growth of all domestic industries. “Any investment in infrastructure will boost economy as infrastructure is related to all industries. The MoU will definitely have a positive effect on the Smart City Mission,” Raju John, Executive Secretary of Builders’ Association of India, told The Dollar Business. About the growth prospects, John said, the country has witnessed several changes on the ground in the past one year "but certain things like land acquisition has to be oiled".  

October 16, 2015 | 5:03pm IST.