'Singapore looking at upgrading Indian cities, transport sector'

Singapore: After providing the master plan for developing Andhra Pradesh's new capital Amaravati, Singapore is looking at "retrofitting" of more Indian cities and plans to upgrade the transportation sector, a senior official said on Friday.

Singapore provided the master plan for Amaravati, the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, setting the stage for crucial participation in the massive development of India.

Yeoh Keat Chuan, managing director of state-owned Economic Development Board, said Singapore is looking at participating in retrofitting of Indian cities and plans to upgrade its transportation sector, increasing its focus on Smart Cities.

"We are looking at re-engineering transportation sector," Yeoh said, citing it as one of the opportunities for participating in the retrofitting of older Indian cities.

Such solutions would help reduce congestion on the stressed infrastructure, he said after addressing some 1,200 delegates at the IIMPACT 2016 conference and exhibition being held here on April 8-9.

He said several Indian, Chinese and South East Asian companies are collaborating and setting up partnerships and joint ventures in Singapore.

"Singapore is a good location for international companies to collaborate and form partnerships," he said, pointing out that there are over 6,000 Indian, 5,000 Chinese and 10,000 Southeast Asian companies operating from the island state.

Yeoh spoke about the 50-year development of Singapore to turn it into a global business centre, having developed expertise in urban redevelopment and water solutions.

A call was also made to increase focus on developing infrastructure in India with Singapore being an intermediary for funding projects.

"Structurally, there are a lot of things happening in India which can be enduring, can be durable, but more importantly the infrastructure that needs to be created has to be both competed for and collaborated with markets like Singapore," said Shyam Srinivasan, chief executive officer of the Federal Bank.

"Singapore's message for India would be for urbanisation," Sam Pitroda, a former technology advisor to the Prime Minister of India, said.

Singapore can also help India in its cleaning initiatives.

"Singapore can help us design a strategy in cleaning," said Pitroda at the conference, organized by the Global IIM Alumni.

He believes cleaning India would require massive investments in machinery, training, logistics, support and landfill among others which requires an elaborate plan.

Pitroda also underlined the importancefor India to continue on developing its infrastructure to support the 'Make in India' initiative.