Global infotech major IBM is in talks with municipal corporations in the country to transform them into 'smart cities', a senior executive said on Wednesday.

"We are not in a position to take the name of specific cities, but we are talking to several municipal corporations. Over the past few months, we have been having a series of conversations with them," IBM India & South Asia Director for Software Group Pradeep Nair said.

"We can make diverse areas like city administration, energy, health department, water utility, and public safety agencies like the police and emergency response services, as well as weather department talk to each other. We can set up an IBM Intelligent Operations Centre in any city, just like we did in Rio de Janeiro," the Mumbai-based Nair said.

However, he did not reply when specifically asked if IBM has been in talks with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

Earlier, Nair launched IBM Intelligent Operations Centre for Smarter Cities here, which it calls a new solution designed to help cities gain "a holistic view of information across city departments and agencies".

"We intend to focus more on such solutions in emerging markets like India, because we see a huge potential in a rapidly urbanising India. We can deploy such solutions even in tier-2 cities and we are already in talks with them," he said.

"Tier-2 cities do not have any legacy systems like the large metros and we can help city administrators to manage all services in real time. Cities need not invest in any new hardware or software capabilities," Nair said.