Hitachi India Ltd and Siemens Ltd on Tuesday signed an MoU with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to form a consortium that would create pilots and replicate them throughout the country for setting up 100 smart cities, according to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The two companies will prepare and undertake demonstration projects/initiatives, prepare prototypes to showcase best practices in various fields related to smart cities, a statement from CII added.
The MoU aims to establish a national mission for such cities as a platform comprising industry leaders and experts and provide policy advocacy and thought leadership to Government and other stakeholders. It would also manage a knowledge repository to provide inputs to the Ministry of Urban Development on best practices.
Hitachi MD Ichiro Iino and Siemens MD Sunil Mathur signed the pact with CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee in the presence of DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant.
Kant said: “Smart city initiative shall be driven by technology driven companies and that learnings gathered from the best practices across the world in the management of water, public resources, public spaces and technology shall be shared while implementing the concept.”