RITES Ltd., the leading Transport Infrastructure Consultancy and Engineering firm, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur) for mutual assistance and cooperation to strengthen and develop a sustainable future by “Transforming to Green”.
The overarching MoU pertains to exploring opportunities in the areas of Sustainability, including ESG and carbon-related works such as carbon neutrality, among others, in sectors such as steel, cement, and power. The MoU also includes research and development work on air quality sensors to align RITES with the visions of the MoEFCC and MoHUA to address air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and solid waste management.
A Dynamic Hyper-local Source Apportionment for Real-Time Policy Action is one such R&D initiative from RITES and IIT-Kanpur. The team will deploy sensor packages at 3-4 locations, with a fully instrumented mobile lab deployed at each site for 10 days over the course of two seasons. Thus, collected data will be used to collect source information, which will be shared with Municipal Corporations, para-statal departments, stakeholders, the Central and State Governments, and others in order to take appropriate measures to control air pollution in Non-Attainment Cities (NACs) such as Kanpur, Lucknow, and Bengaluru. RITES and IIT-Kanpur must also work on a path to carbon neutrality in order to contribute to our country’s Paris Agreement. As a result, both institutions will work together to set goals for reducing carbon footprints and create a framework for meeting ESG milestones.
RITES stated, “Our Memorandum of Understanding with IIT-Kanpur will pave the way for the future as we work to carve a niche in the areas of Sustainability for various sectors. This collaboration of our strengths will result in action plans, roadmaps, and strategic innovation, to name a few, to improve Sustain4Future. In addition, we intend to leverage our consulting and technical expertise while collaborating on knowledge creation with a pioneering institute like IIT-Kanpur.”