Mr Srinivasan | Executive Vice President | Smart world & Communication
Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the 20-billion-dollar conglomerate, for over eight decades, has been transforming lives by converting innovative ideas into defining infrastructure. With the development of the Smart World & Communication (SW&C) Business, L&T reaffirms its commitment to make the world a smarter place to live in. As a Master Systems Integrator, SW&C derives expertise from the project execution capabilities of L&T Construction combined with the technological prowess of L&T Infotech and L&T Technology Services to design customised city-specific solutions and deliver projects within stringent timelines.
Dedicatedly Building Next-gen Cities
SW&C is perfectly placed to build India’s next-gen cities. With proven expertise in focused strategy, robust processes and comprehensive, end-to-end solutions, the business unit offers Integrated Security Solutions, Smart Communication Networks and Telecom Infrastructure, and Smart Infrastructure. The growing track record of SW&C includes:
• Surveillance and intelligent traffic management systems developed in Ahmedabad | Gandhinagar | Vadodara
• India’s largest city surveillance project comprising 5000+ cameras across more than 1500 locations in Mumbai
• Built India’s first Smart City – Jaipur
• Made Prayagraj City Kumbh-ready with a range of smart facilities
• Largest roll out of Smart Meters for EESL – Haryana & UP
• Metro Communication Systems – Lucknow, Delhi, MEGA, Nagpur, Bengaluru
• Early Warning Dissemination System – AP & Odisha (First-of-its-kind in India)
• High Tech Labs in 6039 government schools in Tamil Nadu
• In house design of smart poles incorporating built-in smart solutions introduced in Vizag and Raipur
• Incident free crowd management during Kumbh Mela through AI intervention
• Dedicated Smart City Skill Development Centre for training technicians to install and maintain IoT devices
• State-of-the-art Technology Innovation Centre with complete smart city technology solution prototypes fostering innovation, enhancing technological capability and building competency through research and training programs
• High-speed optical fibre network for rural connectivity
Translating Vision into Action
Mr Srinivasan heads the Smart World & Communication Business Unit, bringing with him several years of rich experience. An Electrical & Electronics Engineer from the College of Engineering, Guindy, and an Alumnus of the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Indian School of Business (ISB) and INSEAD (France), he commenced his career in L&T as a Graduate Engineer Trainee. With a vision to take L&T forward through technological advancements, he has played a crucial role in the creation of SW&C and instrumental in bagging several key projects.
He states, “Our experience in implementing smart solutions in critical infrastructure projects like airports and metros and understanding of infrastructure challenges, enable us to deliver optimal solutions across more than 20 smart cities, thereby retaining our position as the market leader in the segment. With our foot set firm in commissioning backbone communication infrastructure, we are keen to play a major role in transforming our cities to cope with their growing technological needs in monitoring the efficiency of systems thus helping city administrators serve their citizens better.”
Effective Solutions
The infographic below is the representation of the solutions offered by SW&C across the country:
Of Challenges, Capabilities and Creating Awareness
The challenges that SW&C face are very similar to that faced by any infrastructure project right from financial closure, right of way, implementation challenges and issues of integration. The smart city project plan should be solution centric and not product-centric, MSI specific and not OEM specific. Use of open source and vendor agnostic systems would ensure better functionality and customisation.
L&T has proven its capability for executing all types of mega-projects on a turnkey basis involving innovative designs, comprehensive construction services that include procurement, supply, installation, testing and commissioning. This unique L&T combination of executing complex infrastructure projects with digital interventions gives SW&C the edge in smart city projects along with network and communication expertise. Awareness being the key behind Smart City success, SW&C’s project leaders present the benefits derived from their smart city projects at all the leading conferences. Seminars and workshops are conducted in universities to attract talent to this sector.
Guiding the Startups
As per Mr Srinivasan, “Start-ups can play a major role in developing solutions for city-specific challenges through IoT interventions in the areas of Smart Mobility, Traffic Management, Solid Waste Management, Security Surveillance, Pollution Monitoring Systems and Citizen Apps to ensure sustainability and improve delivery efficiency of the utilities. Focus is important since a smart city is a very broad concept. Start-ups can bring in innovative solutions through technologies such as Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.”
Creating Cities of the Future
The challenge of creating cities of the future is to be able to foresee and address future issues; evolve solutions for tomorrow today. SW&C is currently helping transform some 20 cities into smart cities by improving the liveability index and help infrastructure cope with the requirements of a growing population to enhance the quality of the lives of citizens. The business unit possesses the depth of talent and operational bandwidth to roll out this suite of smart solutions across the country. Among others, the business has already enabled the development of an information highway bringing fibre optic network and Wi-Fi to gram panchayats through Bharatnet, GPON and BSNL Wifi projects. SW&C is the only organisation in India that can provide smart, scalable and sustainable systems for urban buildings, public safety, transportation, green energy, emergency response and better governance. As opportunities open up, SW&C is poised to spread its influence far and wide.
