Partnering for sustainable city infrastructure

UK is working closely with India especially for the development of sustainable city infrastructure across the country.The British India Infrastructure Group is looking for partnership opportunities across India’s extensive infrastructure development programme.Mike Nithavrianakis explains.

In January 2012, I led a 12-member UK delegation to Municipalika (an event on city infrastructure and sustainable urban development) to reinforce the UK’s commitment to working with India in building sustainable city infrastructure. We were thrilled to be at Municipalika and delighted that we were a Country Partner.The UK is a global hub for cost-effective, innovative low-carbon solutions.With London 2012 set to be the greenest Olympics ever, the Games will showcase the UK’s low-carbon credentials globally. In India, we have been working with government, business, research and academic institutions

My colleague Dr Phil Marker, Counsellor Climate Change, DFID, New Delhi who was part of our delegation told public and private sector audiences at the event that the UK has learnt from the revitalisation of its ageing inner cities and this embedded knowledge can be shared across India’s own expanding cities.A recurring theme of our work in India is sustainable low-carbon infrastructure.

Indian cities are keen to access UK expertise in planning and execution of city level refurbishment or developmental projects. The UK is closely engaged with several cities both locally and nationally. Madurai and Mysore are cities that are benefiting from UK led city level master-planning work.Cities such as Kota, Udaipur, Tirunelveli and Erode are being supported so they are able to develop actionable low-carbon plans and access funds for such development.Other programmes include LED lighting, smart metering and electricity sector reforms.

British companies are already part of India’s infrastructure story. [See case study in box.] Mott Macdonald was part of the design and engineering team for the Delhi airport and is the civil and structural design engineers for 10 elevated metro stations in Chennai. Mott was heavily involved in the regeneration master plan for Howrah some years ago.

British firms are particularly well placed in revitalisation of communities and the infrastructure and economies upon which these communities depend.Halcrow were involved with the Delhi Metro and other projects. Design firm, Atkins, for example, work with government, public and private sector organisations in providing solutions to urban development and environmental challenges.Beckett & Rankine and BMT Baxter are working on port projects in South India while architectural firm Benoy, is developing market citie, a mixed use development in Chennai, Bangalore and Pune.

UK based architects RMJM worked on the design of the Commonwealth Games Village and engineering and environmental hydraulics firm HR Wallingford, undertook a feasibility study for Cochin Transhipment container terminal. IPM UK is part of a project at Chennai airport.

The British India Infrastructure Group is working to identify partnership opportunities across India’s extensive infrastructure development programme. The UK-India Business Leaders Climate Group is working jointly on low-carbon models to mutual benefit. UK firms such as JCB, Serco and KPMG are involved in the British India Roads Group that aims to decongest urban roads and build new rural roads using recycled material.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and the Climate Change and Energy teams at the British High Commission in India are keen to work with the public and private sectors and civil society in India to leverage British technology, expertise, products and services.

THE PUNJAB EXPERIENCE

A few weeks ago, British firm Ultra Fairwood won the contract from the Punjab Government for the world’s first urban Passenger Rapid Transport (PRT) system in Amritsar.At peak capacity, it can carry 100,000 passengers a day on an 8-km elevated guideway in over 200 specialist vehicles between seven stations, making it the world’s largest PRT system. Passenger services will go live in 2014 but Ultra’s world leading technology ensures driverless, electric-battery powered, computer-driven, zero-emission vehicles called “pods” which use one-third the energy of a car and are virtually silent with no emissions. The route in Amritsar will focus on taking passengers from the railway and bus stations to the Golden Temple; up to 500,000 people visit the Temple on festival days.

Ultra Fairwood’s CFO and Deputy CEO Alan Moore said: “By installing a PRT system, we could potentially reduce a current journey of up to one hour in peak hours to around seven minutes in one city, while in another country we may be able to reduce the number of cars on a major city’s streets by up to 20 per cent. People are at last starting to understand how this innovative technology can play a role in city transport solutions.” Ultra Global PRT’s Managing Director Fraser Brown added: “Research has shown that by 2020, there could be 50 to over 600 PRT system installations worldwide; a real achievement for a system that came out of research from Bristol University.”

Ultra Global sees the Punjab Government’s decision as evidence of the growing sentiment among architects, transport planners and governments that PRT systems can sustainably and quickly transform an urban transport environment.