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Signs and digital signage: These are being implemented across few highway sections on pilot basis and are planned to be deployed in large scale across the national highway network. In first phase around 4000 Km network is identified for deployment of ATMS which shall be extended to another 10,000 km in a span of 3-5 years.
Railways/Urban Mass Transit ITS: With more than 1.2 lakh km of track length, Indian Railways is 4th largest in the world and has 7000+ stations. With focus on enhancing the asset performance, passenger safety and better traveller experience at stations and on-board, the Indian Railways is harping on technology solutions to achieve the same.
Huge success of the Delhi Metro is being followed by nine other cities that are either in partial operation phase or in advanced stages of completion. Project for construction have been awarded recently to five cities and 16 more cities are in the planning stage. Metro Rail systems in India offer a sizeable opportunity for the Metro ITS solution providers in next 3 to 5 years focussing mainly on passenger information, fare collection and signalling systems.
Ports and Inland Waterways: With a coastline of about 7,517 Km, 12 major ports and 200 minor/ intermediate ports, India is the sixteenth largest maritime country in the world. With approximately 14,500 km of navigable waterways, it has not been able to harness the potential to the fullest. To enhance connectivity and efficiency, the Government has embarked on a large port modernisation project called Sagarmala. India recently connected all its ports through a RFID tagging project to improve the entry and exit of trucks and in-port movement through gates. The segment provides a sizeable scope and opportunity for technology solutions in the areas of port management and container tracking systems.
Aviation: With around 90 operational airports, India plans to increase the number of airports to 250 by 2030 to cater to growing leisure and business travel. The country will become the third largest aviation market in terms of passengers by 2026. With such huge plans, the segment provides a huge opportunity for technology solution providers in the areas of passenger information system, airport services management, security and surveillance etc.,
ITS opportunities are spread across the life-cycle i.e. Consulting (System Design and Project Management), System Supply, Systems Integration and Operations and Maintenance. These projects have a typical contract period in the range of 5 to 7 years with payments spread across the CAPEX and OPEX periods based on performance criteria or SLA. Owing to a high degree of dependency on the civil, mechanical & electrical (M&E) infrastructure which necessitates high level of coordination with local administration, manpower intensive operations and maintenance and spread of project payments across the length of contract, local infra players are dominating the space with technology providers as their partners or sub-contractors. With local players slowly building up their technical capabilities, the ITS solution space is currently dominated by foreign players focusing on supply of hardware and software.
Even when digital innovation seems exciting and disruptive, it has its own share of challenges and ITS space in India is no exception. Apart from the technological challenges such as cyber security, data handling/integrations, etc., slow pace of evolution of ITS policy and standardisation, non-availability of national ITS architecture, framework and protocols, nonstandard and isolated deployments, availability of skilled man-power are key challenges faced by the industry which at the same time present unique opportunities for innovation.
In a nutshell, India has set its eye on revamping its transport systems spread across all the segments city, roads, railways, ports and aviation and is heavily harping on technology for realising the benefits. With large scale of deployments and wide spectrum of solutions, ITS industry in India offers huge opportunity for international players to capitalise. However, apart from their technical prowess, key success factors for maximising on the opportunity shall include ability to keep a longterm perspective, strike technical collaborations with local players, open to customise the solutions to Indian context and willingness to transfer the technology for innovation.