As part of the International Urban and Regional Cooperation project supported by the EU, five sensors were installed in the city areas. The sensors were installed by a technical team consisting of Engineers from C-HED and the Messina city University. These sensors have been developed to warn the civic authorities about impending flooding and possible waterlogging. The sensors have been installed at the KSRTC bus stand, Kala Bhavan Road, Panampilly Nagar, Journalists’ Colony, and Vivekananda Road which experience heavy flooding during the rainy season.Kochi and the Italian city of Messina are the technical partners of the International urban and Regional Cooperation project. Incidentally, the same floodwater sensors were developed by the University of Messina for Messina city.
Category Archives: Ongoing Projects
Field visits – Hospital resilience project
Inauguration of Sustainable Neighborhood Project
Genrobotics project – Launch of manhole cleaning robot
The launch of manhole cleaning robot by the Kochi Municipal Corporation as part of the Genrobotics project to eliminate manual entry into the manholes for cleaning was held in the city. The project was implemented by c- hed with the support of Cochin Shipyard Ltd , Genrobotics Innovations Private Limited, Kerala Water Authority.
Ecologistics- E-autos handed over to Samrudhi @ Kochi



TOSCA Installation and Demonstration
The TOSCA installation and demonstration was held at Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (C-HED) as part of TOSCA India – the Toolkit for Open and Sustainable City Planning & Analysis project implemented with the support of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The project is envisioned to address the critical urban challenges and capacity building measures for knowledge transfer and promote open-source community development.
Challenge Lab Kochi
Challenge Lab Kochi – A technical workshop was organized by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH that aimed to develop a granular understanding of city’s needs and priorities, challenges and enablers for setting up the Urban Observatory as well as programming and management of public open spaces. The event was formally inaugurated by the Hon’ble Mayor Adv. M Anilkumar.
The specific objectives of the workshop was to frame two challenges with a user-centric/citizen-centric approach along with defining the necessary framework conditions for setting up an Urban Observatory for Kochi. Dr. Teresa Kerber, Project Director- SUDSC II GIZ, Ms. Monika Bahl, Senior Advisor- SUDSC II GIZ, Dr. Esakkiraj S, Technical Expert-State Coordinator- SUDSC II GIZ, Ms. Fathim Rashna Kallingal, Technical Expert- City Coordinator- SUDSC II GIZ, Mr. Kiran Rajashekariah, Senior Advisor- SUDSC II GIZ, Mr. Samrat Banerjee, ICT and Digitalisation Advisor, SUDSC II GIZ, Ms. Yogita Anil Lokhande, Technical Expert, SUDSC II GIZ, Mr. Florian Bemmerlein- Lux, TL- Smart Cities, Mr. Sebastian Hoffmann, Expert-Smart Cities , Mr. Neelabh Singh, TL Communities of Practice and Expert- Smart Cities , Mr. Luigi Cipolla, Expert- Smart Cities , Mr. Mario Donga, Team Leader- Disaster Risk Management (DRM) , Ms. Magdalena Hoerst, DRM mainstreaming Key Expert, Mr. M. Babu. Abdul Khadeer, Secretary, Kochi Municipal Corporation, P. S Viju, Councillor, Kochi Municipal Corporation, Dr. Rajan, Director, c-hed, Kochi Municipal Corporation officials and Representatives from CSML, WRI India and ICLEI participated in the workshop.
The GIZ has been playing a very proactive role in supporting the city technically in many of it’s innovative ventures.
Kochi – City of Design
Urban Sustainability and Smart City (USSC) Event
The India-EU Urban Partnership (IEUP) project between the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India and the European Union aims to support the implementation of smart, resilient and sustainable urban development in India under the ‘Road Map -2025’ of India-EU bilateral co-operation.
In an interaction in early 2022, the Government of Kerala and the EU Delegation agreed to strengthen their already existing collaboration. The EU and its Member States have a constructive engagement with the City of Kochi and several projects have been / are being implemented. One such initiative was the workshop on ‘Mainstreaming Resilience in Kochi Metropolitan’ conducted in August 2020. Other initiatives include the International Urban Cooperation (IUC) and the International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) projects.
To further their engagement with the city of Kochi, a 2-day Urban Sustainability and Smart City Event was organised. The major aim of the event was to assess and ideate developments in mobility, solid waste management and urban resilience for the city of Kochi. The event had participation from the public and private sector from Kochi and the EU.
Visit of Dutch Water Experts
As part of the ongoing discussions the Hon’ble Mayor has been having with Sri. Venu Rajamony IFS, Officer on Special Duty (External Cooperation), Government of Kerala and Former Ambassador of India to the Netherlands and the Dutch water experts, a delegation of experts visited areas of Kochi city being inundated during heavy rains. The purpose is to study the area and support the city to devise a flood management plan and develop a drainage master plan for the entire Kochi city.