Swedish Cos converge at Vibrant Gujarat with solutions for ‘Smart-Cities’

January 12, 2015

Urban Development Government offices of Sweden along with high level authorities from top Swedish companies like Ikea, Volvo, Ericsson, Envac and Scania, have come down to attend the seventh edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. They are eyeing to collaborate with the local authorities to work on sustainable, energy efficient and green solutions for ‘smart city’ projects in Gujarat.

Talking to the media here, Fredrika Ornbrant, Consul General of Sweden, Mumbai said, “Rapid economic growth, increased population and accelerating urbanisation have led to higher requirements on infrastructure facilities, all over the world. The city of Ahmedabad has also been rapidly developing and is actively taking on these challenges.”

She feels that an affordable public transport network that would enable people to reach their destinations in the shortest possible time, was the need of the hour in Ahmedabad. The Swedish delegation emphasized that the country leads the way in offering a plethora of cutting-edge, new and innovative solutions, one such being SymbioCities, where the goal is to create liveable cities that are good for the population in terms of environment, transportation, waste handling that are mindful to our planet.

Micael Hagman, deputy director, sustainable urban development, Government offices of Sweden said “Sweden is one of the pioneering countries when it comes to technology, innovation and smart cities. Current urbanisation trends will result in 70 per cent of the global population living in cities by 2050, and given the increasing social and environmental challenges, it is imperative that we learn how best to develop, govern and manage integrated and sustainable cities.”

While an Ikea spokesperson spoke on ‘smart living’ in terms of smart furnishings suited for modern day lifestyle made with raw material that is sourced sustainably, K Thulin, director, pre-sales and marketing of commercial vehicle maker Scania highlighted that his company is running buses on green fuel. Thulin mentioned a Stockholm project where the company was running almost 500 buses on bio-fuel, and that the approach was ‘local waste for local fuel’. For that matter, Scania India has launched the ethanol powered “Green Bus” in Nagpur, for the first time in the country, in August last year, and is in the look out for similar initiatives in other Indian cities.

While both Scania and Ikea have been present in India for a while now, this would be the very first time they would be attending the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. Ikea has been present in India for the last 27 years, sourcing for its stores around the world. In India, Ikea currently has 48 suppliers with about 45,000 direct employees and about 400,000 people in the extended supply chain.

Waste management solutions company Envac which is already working on sustainable waste management in GIFT city in Ahmedabad, is looking at partnering in more such projects. For example, it would start a pilot project for automated waste collection system in the capital city of Gandhinagar very soon.

Envac is present in India since 2010 and completed three projects namely the Oberoi Flight Kitchenin Delhi handling 15,000 meals a day, Viveria Towers for K Raheja in Mumbai and the Phase one of GIFT City.Eventually it will be developed to handle waste from over 100 towers and equal to 400 tonnes of waste per day

Source:Business Standards

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Smart City

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