IBI Group awarded ‘Smart Solutions’ in India
Contract win follows award-winning work on Bhubaneswar’s Smart City Strategy
IBI Group Inc. (TSX:IBG), a global leader in intelligence, buildings and infrastructure, announced today that it has officially been awarded a $4 million contract to provide project management and consultancy services for the implementation of the Smart Solutions segment of Bhubaneswar’s Smart City project. Following the delivery of IBI Group’s award-winning 2015 Smart City Strategy for Bhubaneswar, Smart Solutions will produce the nerve centre of its pan-city technology plan: an Intelligent City Operations and Management Centre (ICOMC) overseeing the integration of multiple city systems including traffic management, parking, bus/transit operations, common fare card, smart utilities, emergency response, city incident management and technologies to engage and connect the citizens with the city.
“Bhubaneswar had a clear vision of becoming a livable, sustainable and smart community through the smart city challenge,” said Deepak Darda, IBI Group Head of India Operations. “We understood and believed in the same vision for Bhubaneswar and presented a strong cross-disciplinary team of local and international professionals in planning, design and implementation which helped us win the project.”
Last year the Government of India began a Smart City initiative in key urban areas primed for rapid growth. Bhubaneswar, in Eastern India, ranked first among 98 participating cities. Through careful planning, the initiative aims to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life by enabling local development and access, as well as harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens.
The Bhubaneswar Smart City Strategic Plan was developed by IBI Group to equip the city to adopt a more sustainable model of development. The strategic plan was recently recognized by the Canadian Institute of Planners with a 2016 Award of Merit in the international development category. It was acknowledged for playing a pivotal role in redefining and demystifying the concept of the smart cities movement in developing countries.
“We are at the forefront of designing sustainable, livable and prosperous communities all over the world,” said Trevor McIntyre, IBI Group’s International Regional Lead. “This reflects the success of our firm’s professional achievements but also our growing impact on the development of future cities internationally.”
Features of the Smart Solutions project will include responsive operational control for real-time incident management and service delivery improvements for the city’s transit and utility operations. This contract win adds to IBI Group’s substantial contribution to the global Smart City movement, with similar recent wins in the cities of London, Canada; Bristol, UK; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; and Shendra and Hyderabad, India.
