Technopark IT firm enters Indian transportation mkt

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: The Technopark-based ARS Software Engineering on Wednesday announced it will enter the Indian transportation and logistics industry with its intelligent transport systems solutions.

The company is a subsidiary of ARS Traffic and Transport Technology BV based in the Netherlands.

Intelligent transport systems (ITS) refer to the information and communications technology to support transport infrastructure with applications in basic management systems such as car navigation, traffic signal control systems and container management systems.

Jan H Linssen, chief executive officer of ARS Software Engineering, said the company decided to enter the Indian market as huge infrastructural development is taking place across the country.

"The global market for ITS is expected to reach $18.5 billion by 2015 and the Indian market is expected to reach $0.5 billion by 2015.

"India is a green market for us and we see huge opportunity for our solutions here. We are already in the last stages of some strategic deals," said Linssen.

Sunil S Kumar, operational director, said: "We have some huge projects in the pipeline and we are also looking at increasing our headcount. Today the Indian subsidiary is a 100-member strong team. We hope to have 250 employees by the end of 2013."

The ARS client base includes Shell, European Space Agency, Dutch ministry of transport, Dutch national railways, Philips, National Data Warehouse in the Netherlands and Finnish Road Authority in Finland.