Singapore-based engineering group bullish on India prospects

A Singapore-based engineering consulting firm has said it is bullish on its India prospects and is expanding its operations as the government rolls out its massive plan to build 100 smart cities.
"We are very bullish on India and will set up two more offices immediately in anticipation on awards of more infrastructure projects," Meinhardt Group International's chief executive officer Omar Shahzad told PTI.
Meinhardt will double its operational capacity from the current two -- one each in Chennai and in Delhi -- to four with one office each in Mumbai and in Andhra Pradesh.
Another office will be set up in Bangalore, a hub of international business, to manage projects out of the city, Nadim said.

"We are expecting to double the number of projects we are managing in India in the next two to three years as the country's construction activities increase rapidly," he said.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government all set to launch massive infrastructure development, there would be large-scale awarding of contracts, Nasim pointed out.

The international engineering group, with operations in more than 32 countries, is also looking at a number of forums and conferences to present technologies to Indian developers and project managers.
As India rolls out its massive plan to build 100 smart cities, there would be a need for forward planning for using advanced technologies such as dedicated tunnels for all services -- water, electricity, gas, sewage, he said.

Dedicated tunnels would be important in the future cities, which will allow maintenance work to be carried out without disrupting traffic.
"There would not be any need to cut roads and block traffic to repair utilities laid underground," he explained.
"Service men could just walk through the tunnels and reach the sensor monitor faults for repair," he added.
Meinhardt previously acted as global technical adviser to the Civil Aviation Authority for the privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports some seven years ago.