April 13, 2015: The Essel Group, one of India’s largest business conglomerates and a front runner in developing the Smart City Framework for India, is poised to forge strategic alliances with European businesses as it looks to bolster its smart city and renewable energy projects in India. The company is set to participate at the Hannover Messe 2015 trade fair in Germany where it will showcase its Smart City Framework for building integrated, inclusive, innovative and sustainable smart cities. This will also include a governance framework based on Public-Private-People-Partnerships (PPPP), unveiled for the first time at Hannover.
While at Hannover, the company will actively scout for forging partnerships with master planning companies, mayors and urban development ministries and smart city developers in Germany, Norway, France and Spain among other countries which have some of the finest smart cities in the world.
Speaking about Essel Group’s participation at Hannover, Dr Subhash Chandra, Chairman Essel Group said, “Hannover Messe is a perfect platform to present our commitment in creating world class cities in India. The event will pave the way for bringing in a wealth of knowledge, talent and domain expertise from a country that is known for its engineering excellence, prowess in renewable energy and infrastructure.”
Essel Group has taken big strides forward in realizing the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of setting up 100 smart cities in India. With a vision to enhance the quality of life, the Group associates with multiple partners to develop the smart city environment by decoding the governance policy framework. It is the only integrated smart city developer in India with proven expertise in creating single window utility corridor. Its integrated utilities model for smart cities will focus on nurturing smarter communities across major cities undertaking projects in Power and Water Distribution Services, Municipal Solid Waste Management, Sewage Treatment, Drainage and Storm Water Management, City Wi-Fi, Cable and Broadband, City Gas Distribution and Intelligent Traffic Management Systems. These services will be offered through a single-window solution model based on SIPC (Smart Integrator and Principal Contractor) concept, thus delivering an all-in-one conduit to consumers. This will be a first-of-its kind concept where all utility services will be offered under one roof.
Ashok Agrawal, Managing Director, Essel Infraprojects, said “This is a great opportunity for us to network with master planning companies, mayors, ministers, smart city developers and hopefully forge alliances and partnerships that work in line with realizing our smart city dream in India.”
Essel aims to provide a high value add to a city’s operation to create a smooth one point contact for citizens who have to go to various departments for fixing their issues. The company is in the process of devising a sustainable financial model for smart cities that will consider both the high capital expenditure (CAPEX) as well as structure the revenue streams such that over a period of time, these smart cities will become financially self-sustainable.