A smart city lab, which will act as a platform for the exchange of knowledge and global best practices about smart city initiatives around the world, has been inaugurated at GIFT City, India’s first operational smart city located in Gujarat.
Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems (IGLUS) Centre of Excellence is an initiative taken by GIFT Company Limited in association with EPFL, Switzerland and Nirma University. An MoU has been signed by all the partners to initiate the process for incubating the smart city lab at GIFT City, which will also act as a common hub for global experts and practitioners in the field of sustainable urban planning.
“We are delighted to have the IGLUS-Centre of Excellence at GIFT city. Along with EPFL and Nirma University, we will work towards enhancing the sharing of knowledge and best global practices about Smart City. As India’s first operational Smart City, it is imperative to have a common platform set up in GIFT City to further strengthen the implementation of smart and sustainable urban planning in the context of developing nations,” said Tapan Ray, Managing Director and Group CEO, GIFT City.
The activities at the centre will include providing smart city consultancy services and organise joint events/conferences/workshops and regional training on the smart city topics, such as sustainable built environment, innovative governance, management, finance, social and informal sector, transportation, infrastructure, real estate, and town planning.
Sharing his thoughts on the centre, Prof. Finger Matthias, Swiss Post Chair at EPFL, said, “IGLUS has long been looking for a competent partner to put smart city concepts into practice, and we have found in GIFT City together with Nirma University. We look forward to learning from the concrete experiences so as to refine our thinking and approaches for the benefit of GIFT City, other smart cities in India and the world”.
Stressing on how the centre will benefit institutes, particularly Nirma University, Dr Anup K Singh, Director General Nirma University, said the initiative will help in carrying out research in the field of sustainable cities and urban design framework for our faculty and students.
“There will be opportunities for short courses and carry out consultancy all over the world through a multidisciplinary team,” he added.
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Co Ltd (GIFTCL), a Government of Gujarat promoted company, is developing Gift City, in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It is an internationally benchmarked Global Financial Hub to cater to the requirements of the service industry with a thrust on exports.
