Skip to main content

Santiago to award smart city projects in July

The metropolitan region government of Chile, which includes capital Santiago, expects to award tenders worth a total of US$1.6 million in July for five smart city projects. The government's fund for innovation in competitiveness is part of its smart city financing strategy and is aimed at generating proposals from universities, which have until the end of April to submit them, according to Metropolitan Region smart city plan coordinator Enzo Abbagliati. The strategy also includes private funding and r
April 13, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The metropolitan region government of Chile, which includes capital Santiago, expects to award tenders worth a total of US$1.6 million in July for five smart city projects.

The government's fund for innovation in competitiveness is part of its smart city financing strategy and is aimed at generating proposals from universities, which have until the end of April to submit them, according to Metropolitan Region smart city plan coordinator Enzo Abbagliati.

The strategy also includes private funding and resources from other public entities. In the private sector, Spanish firms 509 Indra and 6883 Telefónica have already financed the installation of sensors in some parts of Santiago, which provide information for website that gives users real time information on how long their journey will take or how fast traffic is moving.

Abbagliati's team gave the universities a rough outline for each project, one being the idea of smart mobility. "We'll place sensors in a part of Santiago and that will generate open data that anyone can access and use to develop an app," he said.

Each project will be designed to span 18 months and they are expected to go live in December 2016.

The government is hoping that smart city projects like these will pay for themselves in terms of savings and therefore fully expects to continue investing. "We hope to put up a similar figure next year and run the contest annually," Abbagliati said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • CIHT welcomes NAO report on roads infrastructure funding
    June 9, 2014
    The UK’s Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) has welcomed the National Audit Office’s (NAO) report, Maintaining strategic infrastructure: roads, which highlights how long term funding certainty is crucial to how the UK manages its road infrastructure. Funding pressures on highways authorities have encouraged efficiency and innovation in how budgets for road maintenance are spent, but public value will be lost unless funding becomes more predictable, according to the report. The r
  • MTC awards funding to modernise Bay Area transit systems
    January 28, 2016
    San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has allocated US$494 million to help more than 20 Bay Area transit agencies replace or rehabilitate aging buses, ferries, rail cars, tracks and bridges; update safety, control and communications systems; install new fare-collection equipment; maintain services for elderly and disabled passengers; and make other capital improvements. The commitment includes US$447 million of federal transportation funds, supplemented by US$47 million of revenues fr
  • Transport for London launches competition to create accessibility apps
    March 14, 2013
    Transport for London (TfL) is launching a competition to create new 'Accessibility Apps', marking the first of a series of initiatives to improve the variety of accessibility apps on offer. As part of the competition developers are being invited to apply with ideas for a new travel app which will make Transport for London (TfL) real time data more accessible to a far wider audience than mainstream Apple/Android apps. The winning entries will receive development support from TfL. Making the transport network
  • Improved productivity and advanced technology benefits ITS
    December 13, 2012
    John Horsley will hang up his hat as executive director of AASHTO in February 2013. After 14 years at the helm, he will bow out convinced of the current and future benefits of ITS for US transportation. Alot of exciting career opportunities still await young engineers in US transportation, says John Horsley, outgoing executive director of AASHTO – the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials. Horsley will be dedicating more of his time to matters of ITS after he stands down in Februa