As India accelerates large-scale infrastructure buildout, infrastructure engineering software player Bentley Systems is seeing rising demand for digital twin technology, as per company executives. Governments are increasingly adopting real-time digital replicas of physical assets to improve coordination, cut risks, and enable predictive maintenance.
“A big part of what we’re doing with India is positioning digital twins as essential national infrastructure enablers. We’re seeing strong demand from Indian government agencies that are seeking technology to deliver projects faster with greater coordination. We position digital twins as not add-ons, but foundational infrastructure capabilities that support integrated planning and coordination. We’re looking to support and build a long-term ecosystem in India,” said Dave Philp, Chief Value Officer at Bentley Systems.
A digital twin, he explained, is a real-time representation of infrastructure that stays connected to the physical asset across its entire lifecycle—from planning and design to construction, and operation and maintenance. It brings together engineering models, geospatial contexts, construction data, and live operational inputs into a single environment. The twin then evolves as the asset changes.
This allows stakeholders to simulate scenarios, test designs before committing capital, and understand how systems interact at a network or city level. With real-time monitoring, digital twins enable predictive maintenance, helping detect issues before failures occur, and shift infrastructure management from reactive to proactive.
Rehearsing different conditions in a virtual environment reduces design errors, shortens project timelines, and lowers construction risk.
This technology is being applied to solve challenges in India’s projects, like the Pinnapuram Integrated Renewable Energy Project in Andhra Pradesh. As a large integrated solar, wind, and pumped-storage hydro project, it faced geotechnical challenges. The engineering consultancy AFRY turned to GeoStudio software from Seequent, a Bentley company, to digitally model and analyze everything from slope stability to the integrity of the 40-meter-high rockfill dams, ensuring the project’s viability before breaking ground.
Digital-first approach
Philp observed that governments, especially in India, are taking a digital-first approach to infrastructure development.
Kamalakannan Thiruvadi, Regional Executive for South Asia at Bentley Systems, said India represents a significant infrastructure market for the company, with a focus on sectors such as transportation—including roads, rail, metro, and airports—as well as water and wastewater systems, flood and stormwater management, and energy.
He echoed, “The advantage of a digital twin is that it creates a real-world replica, it’s real-time, and allows human interaction. We executed a project for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, who chose a private sector organization called Veolia to design a fully pressurized 24/7 drinking water supply system. Initially, they had done the hydraulic modeling with the help of our software,” he noted.
The project, implemented by Orange City Water (OCW), a joint venture of Veolia Water India, uses a digital twin to manage Nagpur’s vast water distribution network serving over three million residents.
Built on Bentley’s OpenFlows WaterSight, the cloud-based platform integrates data from SCADA systems, GIS, hydraulic models and customer records into a single, near real-time view of the network. This allows operators to monitor performance, detect anomalies, simulate scenarios, and respond faster to issues such as leaks or pump failures.