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ROUNDTABLE
ON INDIAN AUTOMOTIVE R&D OPPORTUNITIES
By
John Greenough, LEA Consulting
ITS
Canada was invited to a roundtable discussion on Indian
automotive research and development opportunities
with several representatives from India’s automotive
industry that was held in Toronto last November. The
roundtable session was sponsored by the Ministry of
Economic Development and Trade of Ontario, in association
with the Government of India. The purpose of the roundtable
event was to introduce the Indian automotive sector
and discuss collaboration opportunities for Canadian
automotive industries in India’s marketplace.
John
Greenough, Vice President and Head of Transportation
Systems at LEA Consulting Ltd., attended the roundtable
discussion on behalf of ITS Canada. Although LEA is
a Canadian firm with offices in the Toronto and Vancouver
area, LEA also has over 900 employees in offices throughout
India, including a major centre in New Delhi that
provides transportation planning and engineering services,
including ITS.
Some
of the key attendees at the roundtable discussion
included:
Mr. A.P. Arya, President of Tata Motors;
Mr. Aravind Bhardwaj, Head of Advanced Engineering
at Ashok Leyland;
Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Director General of the Society
of Indian Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM);
Mr. Atanu Ganguli, Dy. Director of SIAM;
Mr. Satya Swarup Udgata, Head of R&D at Automotive
Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA)
& RSB Group.
Notable
Canadian corporate representatives included automotive
and related industry corporations like General Motors
and Magna International, as well as R&D institutes
such as the University of Toronto and the Ontario
Centres of Excellence.
Hon.
Harinder Takhar, Minister of Small Business and Entrepreneurship,
Ontario, and Mr. Akhil Tyagi, Area Director, Ministry
of Economic Development and Trade, Ontario, introduced
the roundtable sessions, in which discussion topics
focused on:
Opportunities for technology alliances, research outsourcing
and exchange programs; and
Mechanisms for Canadian R&D organizations to establish
relationships with Indian counterpart groups.
Discussions
highlighted that India has become the fastest growing
car market in the world with a projected annual growth
rate of 10 percent per year through 2010, and forecasters
predict that India will become the fourth largest
passenger car market in the world by 2020. India’s
automotive components sector is also growing dramatically,
primarily driven by foreign collaborations.
As
such, there are many prospects for Canadian automotive
companies in India. From an ITS perspective, the session
noted Canada’s successful advances in ITS, and
the opportunities for Canadian ITS industries to offer
India and its automotive markets systems products
and expertise that can be so readily exported.
Representing
ITS Canada, John Greenough (r) meets with A.P. Arya,President
of TATA Motors, one of India’s largest automotive
manufacturing corporations, at recent international
roundtable discussions in Toronto
ITS CANADA ELECTION – Ballots to be mailed
For
the upcoming ITS Canada elections, ballots will be
mailed in February/March to the Primary Contact for
each membership. Prior to January 31, 2007, all members
are asked to review their contact information to ensure
that ITS Canada has a current mailing address on file.
Please access the online Members Directory at:
www.itscanada.ca/protected/search.php
Any
changes should be emailed to askus@itscanada.ca.
ITS
CANADA WELCOMES NEW MEMBER
CORPORATE
Region of Niagara
MEMBERS
IN THE NEWS
NAVTEQ
has agreed to acquire The Map Network, a producer
of official maps for travel destinations, special
events, major hotels and marquee venues. The Map Network’s
content and capabilities are a natural extension of
NAVTEQ’s core map business and will enable NAVTEQ
to augment its portfolio with rich, location-specific
detail.
NAVTEQ has also announced the release of a “Detailed
Coverage” map for Norway. Drivers will now be
able to use navigation systems for turn-by-turn routing
instructions to and from addresses all over the country.
The database also includes the relevant codes needed
to receive traffic information from TMC-enabled navigation
systems.
In
January 2007, Delcan Corporation
signed a contract with the Transport Department Hong
Kong SAR to provide consultant services for the Kowloon
ATC (Area Traffic Control) Project to replace the
existing ATC systems and associated traffic signal
controllers for most of the Kowloon Peninsular. The
total number of controllers for replacement is around
940. Spare parts for the existing systems are becoming
obsolete, making it difficult and costly for proper
maintenance and repairs. The project also involves
expanding the new ATC system to cover the 30-plus
sets of traffic signals in the Tsueng Kwan O (“TKO”).
Provision of the new ATC facilities is expected to
optimize the capacity of existing traffic signals,
alleviate traffic congestion and reduce delay.
REGIONAL UPDATES – Maritimes
By
Doug Shea – Newfoundland & Labrador Dept.
Transportation and Works
The
RWIS project of 18 sites on the National Highway corridor
is complete and operational. Regional staff are trained
in the operation of the system and, by all accounts,
are satisfied with the results received. It will be
a couple of years before we can evaluate the benefits
from the system when all the bugs are worked out and
we are operating at full capacity.
The department has hired a consultant to implement a Transportation – Geographic Information System (GIS-T) for the department. The project is in the start-up phase, with a call for proposals for software expected later this month and advertisement for a project manager expected later this spring. A pilot project to collect data for the system is ongoing. Expected completion of the project is March 31, 2008, with continued data collection past that date expected to take another year to complete.
The department has an ongoing project to equip our
fleet of heavy equipment with global positioning system
(GPS) hardware. At present, we have 44 units equipped
and in service.
By
Paul Richard, Nova Scotia Dept of Transportation &
Public Works
The
Nova Scotia Department of Transportation & Public
Works (NSTPW) continues to expand its RWIS network.
The current complement of stations stands at 39, with
2 new sites slated for completion in January of 2007
and 12 more new installations planned over the next
three years.
The
Province, along with N.B. and P.E.I., contract system
maintenance and forecasting to AMEC Earth & Environmental
as part of a Maritime Provinces RWIS network. The
Cape Breton Highlands National Park is currently installing
two RWIS stations and they will be displayed on the
Maritimes RWIS site.
NSTPW
is also conducting a pilot project on an Automatic
Vehicle Location (AVL) system in two Counties. A total
of 30 salt/plow units are being retrofitted with GPS
systems that upload the vehicle data via satellite
communications for display on a website.
In
another pilot project, the Department is combining
the AVL technology and the RWIS network to evaluate
the benefits of thermal mapping. This project will
be carried out on 92 kilometres of Highway 104 through
Pictou County. Data are collected over a series of
winter nights, under different weather conditions,
using salt truck-mounted infrared thermometers to
collect pavement temperatures over the roadway network,
and relating them to GPS points along the roadway.
This data then allows mapping of pavement temperature
all along the roadway, using the known pavement temperatures
from the RWIS sites. These thermal maps can be used
by winter maintenance personnel to focus primary salting
efforts on the coldest sections of pavement.
NSTPW
is about to go live with a web-based winter road condition
reporting system. Drivers will be able to access information
for the Province's main and secondary highway system
with the click of a mouse. The same information will
be accessible by phone via interactive voice response.
The website will feature a colour-coded map of the
Province, with links to the highway webcams and weather
conditions and forecasts from Environment Canada.
The
Department is also investigating the development of
a 511 traveller information line which would utilize
the information produced by the systems outlined above.
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Congres ATEC-ITS France
January 30 and 31, 2007 – Paris, France
www.atec-tec.net |
| |
ITS Conference
February 1 and 2, 2007 – New Delhi, India
www.euindia.info |
| |
Roads & The Environment
Conference – International Road Federation
February 5-6, 2007 – Geneva, Switzerland
www.irfnet.org |
| |
| ITS
Technology Fair
February
14, 2007 ö Washington , D.C.
www.itsa.org/techfair.html |
| |
ANDINATRAFFIC
2007
February 26 to 28, 2007 – Bogotá,
Colombia
www.andinatraffic.com/sa3t/home/index.cfm |
| |
SASITS e-Transport Conference
March 6 to 8, 2007 – Pretoria, South Africa
www.sasits.com |
| |
Intertraffic
China
March 15 to 17, 2007 – Beijing China
www.intertraffic.com |
| |
Le 42e congrès annuel
de l'AQTR
April 2 to 4, 2007 – Montreal, QC
ctasse@aqtr.qc.ca |
| |
TAC's Spring 2007 Technical
Meetings
April 11 to 18, 2007 – Ottawa, Ontario
www.tac-atc.ca |
| |
Smart
Moving Conference 2007 / Traffex 2007
April 17 to 19, 2007 – Birmingham, UK
Theme: “SMART Solutions for Today”
www.its-uk.org.uk |
| |
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ITS
Canada Annual Conference and General Meeting
April 29 to May 1, 2007 – Niagara Falls,
Ontario
Call
For Abstracts – due January 19, 2007
www.itscanada.ca/niagara2007 |
| |
CITE 2007 Conference
May 6 to 9, 2007 – Toronto, Ontario
www.itetoronto.ca |
| |
15th International Symposium
on Electronics in Traffic (ISEP 2007)
May 9 to 11, 2007 – Ljubljana, Slovenia
www.ezs-zveza.si/isep2007/foreword |
| |
Intertraffic Istanbul
May 9 to 11, 2007 – Istanbul, Turkey
www.intertraffic.com |
| |
XVII
Canadian Multidiscipinary Road Safety Conference
June 3 to 6, 2007 – Montreal, Quebec
www.cmrsc.polymtl.ca |
| |
ITS
America 2007 Annual Meeting and Exposition
June 4 to 6, 2007 – Palm Springs, California
www.itsa.org |
| |
7th International Conference
on ITS Telecommunications
June 6 to 8, 2007 – Sophia Antipolis, France
www.itst2007.eurecom.fr |
| |
European
ITS Congress
June 18 to 20, 2007 – Aalborg, Denmark
www.itsineurope.com |
| |
23rd World Road Congress
September 17 to 21, 2007 – Paris, France
www.paris2007-route.fr |
| |
14th
World Congress on ITS
October 9 to 13, 2007 – Beijing, China
www.itsa.org
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Newsletter
published by ITS Canada.
Submissions
or comments can be emailed to askus@itscanada.ca.
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