Ashish Tandon, Managing Director, Egis India

BRIGHT Future Ahead!

Coupled with decades of knowledge and understanding of the Indian markets, Egis in India is an integrated infrastructure company, which offers dual advantage of French expertise and experience in integrated infrastructure development in 100 plus countries. Egis is best suited to offer end-to-end infrastructure solutions, for a global India. The company ensures delivering Smart, Sustainable Designs, with State-of-the-art Technology and Engineering, Innovations towards successful and timely implementation of the Smart City Proposal.
Ashish Tandon, Managing Director Egis India has strengthened its position across infrastructure sectors, as an integrated infrastructure company. Leading from the front, Ashish Tandon's leadership has been instrumental in making Egis India, the cornerstone of the international Egis Group. Johnny D talks at great length to Ashish Tandon about Egis India's role in building Smart Cities and various challenges ahead.

How effective and efficient are infra projects being executed in the current scenario in Smart Cities of India?
Ashish Tandon: The decision to develop Smart Cities is a big step for India. And, it will take time. It would be unfair to expect instant results. However, I feel the government is seriously trying to streamline processes, support the stakeholders involved and simplify decision making process and approvals. Even though, Smart Cities are making a good amount of progress, the work could be faster. However, I am confident, looking at the efforts and the cooperation extended by the government, things will only get better.

Please elaborate on Egis's role in the Smart City Bhubaneswar.
Ashish Tandon: As the Prog­ra­mme Management Consultant, we are responsible for the successful implementation of the projects envisaged for the ABD zone, in the SCP document.
In Bhubaneswar Smart City, currently we are retrofitting 70 km of roads and streets in the ABD zone, in the heart of the city. The key outputs will be undergrounding of infrastructure - electric and telecom cables, designing for 24X7 water and power supply, introducing city gas network and extensively redesigning the streets to create pedestrian-friendly, safe and vibrant city spaces.
In addition to the urban realm renewal, multiple buildings, such as Social Equity Centre, multi-level car parks, integrated command and control centre are also being designed and tendered for implementation.

Please specify the major challenges being faced on the real grounds by Egis Team.
Ashish Tandon: Smart City Implementation is an ambitious vision of our Prime Minister. The stakeholders, namely, the government agencies, citizens and knowledge partners are trying their best to realize it. However, there is a singular lack of coordinated information of the existing systems and underground networks; most of the current urban services provisions are ad hoc and haphazard. Consolidating all the necessary data in a cityscape, bustling with people and activities, is a challenge. Doing it within the time-lines defined, for the Smart City Implementation is the major challenge!

According to you, which Indian Smart City will be the first to be at par with International Smart Cities like Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore or Amsterdam?
Ashish Tandon: India will create its own brand of 'smartness' for its vibrant urban cores. Indian cities are unique in the challenges they face. Every city needs to be customized to pre-empt and mitigate the challenges faced by it, in its quest for 'smartness'. And, let us not forget, cities in India are being retrofitted to become smart. These are brownfield and not greenfield projects. However, what we can expect from the smart cities being developed in India would be more sustainable water resources, better connectivity, planned traffic movement, intra and intercity connectivity and world-class transportation, for at least the next twenty years, keeping in mind the potential growth of the cities.

How many years will it take realistically for India to build a truly world-class Smart City, with all its objectives achieved, namely, Energy / Buildings / Mobility / Healthcare / Infrastructure / Technology / Governance / Education for Smart Citizen?
Ashish Tandon: At least a decade….

Smart Grid Equipment and Solutions, and Building Materials' Manufacturers are the soul in building Smart Cities. State your perspective about the Sectors' Growth.
Ashish Tandon: Smart cities are not just restricted to buildings. It is much more. It consists of sustainable transportation, residential, recrea­tio­nal, energy management, waste management and information technology solutions. Involving strong planning, designing, implementation and maintenance processes. Just restricting ourselves to Building Materials will be a very myopic view.

How would you distinguish the infra projects' execution in India, as compared to France?
Ashish Tandon: France and India are at two different levels of evolution as economies and cultures. Comparing them will not be a just comparison. However, France is more organized and experienced in the infrastructure development process. India is just starting the journey. So there are positives and negatives. The positives are the high levels of energy in India and the enthusiasm for the change. However, the negatives are - lower expectations and inadequate time given for the change. Miracles will not happen. What takes time, will take time!

In coming years, how would you vision the future of the company in Indian Infra Sector?
Ashish Tandon: Let us talk about the present. France headquartered Egis group is happy with the performance of India.
India is made one of the three pole countries of the Group outside France - the other two pole countries being Brazil and UAE. The company is partnering some of the most prestigious projects in the country. Egis is offering end-to-end solutions in consulting and project management across roads and highways, aviation, water, ports, building engineering and urban and railways.
I believe the present work acts like the seeds of the future. I see working on some of the very prestigious and important projects in the country. We are only growing in our strength, experience and expertise. As the Indian economy grows, we are in a strong position to grow with it and get more projects in the country, which can become showcase projects for the country. We are extremely confident of a very bright and strong future for Egis
in India.

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