California-based Cisco Systems Inc., and Colorado-based global engineering firm CH2M have announced a new global strategic alliance to provide urban planning, design and smart technology integration and delivery services for their first project in India, reports CNN Money. Their first integrated delivery will be to Shendra-Bidkin an industrial smart city being developed along India’s Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. Shendra Bidkin is located in the Aurangabad District (where the caves of Ajanta and Ellora are a popular tourist attraction) in the state of Maharashtra.
CH2M will serve as program manager for building phase 1 of Shendra-Bidkin and will develop the Master System Integration Plan while CH2M’s role includes managing development of physical infrastructure (including buildings, roads, water systems, and energy) and an exhibition and convention center.
“India has entered a new era of smart city industrial development. The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation have joined hands to build Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Area (SBIA) as a state-of-the-art smart city based on principles of sustainability. Ideally situated within Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Area will showcase Maharashtra’s leading manufacturing industries and will be home to many of the world’s leading corporations. SBIA will join other world-class developments as one of India’s first smart and master planned industrial cities that will contribute towards creating an ecosystem for the ‘Make In India’ and ‘Make in Maharashtra’ campaigns to help the country and the state become a new economic force and achieve long-term sustainable growth,” said Apurva Chandra, IAS, Principal Secretary (Industries), Government of Maharashtra.
