‘Smart City projects set to gather momentum’

After wasting nearly half of the project period, the Kochi Smart City projects are all set to gather momentum, going by what the project managers are saying.

Projects worth ₹380 crore would be tendered by May 31, taking the total spending to ₹555 crore, said A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Chief Executive Officer, Cochin Smart Mission Limited.

The smart city project aims to bring in development worth ₹2,000 crore in select city areas. The projects needed to be completed by May 2020, said Mr. Hanish, while attending an interactive session organised by the Kerala Merchants Chamber of Commerce here on Tuesday.

The change of guard in the State, the delay in getting a project consultant and the long wait for completing other formalities took nearly two years and two months. Many cities that were selected along with Kochi in the first list of smart cities including Indore, Bhopal and Pune made significant progress in terms of implementation of projects by then, he said.

Mr. Hanish, who admitted that the city could not do much during the past years though it was selected as the fifth smart city in the country, however, said the projects had started picking up of late.

Under the smart city project, smart electric poles, which would do away with the street-side electric poles, LED lighting system, multi-level car parking system, smart classrooms, improvement of facilities in schools at Kalvathy and Mattanchery and the Ernakulam General Hospital had been planned, he said.

Uninterrupted power and water supply, modern water transport system and support to local-level waste management programmes had also been envisioned in the scheme, he said.

Mr. Hanish sought the support of traders for the development of Broadway street, Broadway square and the revitalization of the canal.

The projects of Kochi Metro Rail Limited would supplement the smart city projects. The metro rail could hope to improve its revenue only through non-ticket revenue sources, he added.

The development of a metro city in the acre-holding at Kakkanad would go a long way in improving the financial position of the urban transport system. The Hong Kong and Singapore metro systems earned profit through the development of real estate projects, he said.