Technology in Infrastructure trends 2020

The infrastructure sector is a key driver for the Indian economy. The sector is highly responsible for propelling India’s overall development and enjoys intense focus from the Government for initializing policies that would ensure the time bound creation of world-class infrastructure in the country. As India is progressing exponentially in terms of building smart cities, a lot of transformation is visible across the map in technology advancement and infrastructure development. According to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received in the Construction Development sector (townships, housing, built-up infrastructure, and construction development projects) from April 2000 to March 2019 stood at US$ 25.05 billion, which further implies the immense growth of the sector.

The key areas which are going to drive the infrastructure technology segment for 2020 include:

1) Public Transport: Transport infrastructure has emerged as a major challenge in modern cities and has led to various other complexities like air pollution, congestion of roads and noise pollution, apart from severely diminishing the quality of life. Switching to eco-friendly modes of transportation such as electronic vehicles and a robust public transport facility that can reduce the number of vehicles on the road etc., can help alleviate the problem. One of the crucial trends therefore is going to be focused on facilitating effective technology infrastructure that can address these issues. More electronic charging points, for example, will be an important factor.  

2) AI & ML driven solution: Synthetic Intelligence and Machine learning algorithms are slowly being deployed on a vast array of sectors, including healthcare, consumer technology and entertainment etc. this year, AL and ML driven infrastructure projects and solutions will be deployed so as to accelerate the complex developmental projects. Advanced total stations for land surveying, for e.g., use advanced geo mapping and AI technology to map and plan construction of bridges and sea-links etc.

3) Resource management: With a higher concentration of population in the cities, it resource management has been another major problem. Efficient distribution and optimization of resources- such as water and electricity- is needed. Technology plays a vital role in identifying solutions that can help solve these problems. For example, effective monitoring and testing of ground water levels and soil quality etc., using modern equipment is another instance of tech enabled solutions for infrastructure.

4) Security and surveillance: Security has become a primary concern for the modern society. Modern techniques like drones that deploy AI driven surveillance methods and ML based security systems for individual safety set-ups, etc. are just a few instances of technology in fortification of urban societies. A wider, public network of CCTV’s and use of drones for monitoring city scrapes, mangroves, coastline security, and surveillance of national borders, is already gaining popularity. 2020 will witness greater advancement of these technologies, and wider deployment of across the nation.

5) Sustainable initiative: With mass scale development at an accelerated scale in the last century has led to fast-track depletion of natural resources and, in the process, has led to environmental crisis and hazards. Recycling of waste, setting up eco-friendly structure and reducing the carbon footprints etc., are primary concerns for the 2020 infrastructure development models.

Development in the infrastructure sector used to take several years and consumed lots of time and effort. With the advancement of technology in the infrastructure sector, it not only made the sector more efficient but it further helped in the growth of the sector. The new decade is set to mark a giant leap in the segment, with more public-private partnerships to develop and manage projects.