Kochi Smart City: Improving the liveability standards

Kochi was among the first 20 cities to be shortlisted under India’s Smart Cities Mission. CW reached out to Shanavas S, CEO, Cochin Smart Cities Mission (CSML), to catch up on the progress of the projects and know more of what is in the pipeline.

Tell us about the achievements of the Cochin Smart City so far.
Kochi has showcased much progress in the project implementation stage. Due to some technical issues, some projects could not be taken forward. Kochi has been awarded for the smart city empowering India Award 2019 for the e-health solution project in 2019, and in 2018 won the challenge of CITIIS challenge (City Investments To Innovate Integrate and Sustain) launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with the support of European Union and AFD (French Development Agency) with a grant of Rs. 151 million. The city has also won different challenges initiated by the ministry such as Streets for People, Cycles for Change, and Nurturing Neighbourhood to promote and get citizens to participate in the ongoing implementation process.

How is Cochin Smart City working for the next challenge of the mission?
Many of the projects that CSML has undertaken in the last phases, are in fact the scaled-up versions of earlier projects. For example, now CSML is developing more than 20 public spaces and developing various roads. Also, we are replacing all street lights around the city to LED lights.