Category Archives: Ongoing Projects

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The city of Kochi is an important place of employment for migrant workers in Kerala. The migrant workers in any urban centre are often forced to live in unhygienic and unsafe conditions. The case to some extent in Kochi is the same. They are often denied the access to safe and fair accommodation in the city.

In this regard, the Kochi Municipal Corporation decided to prepare and implement a comprehensive plan to address the housing crisis of migrant workers in the city. With an aim to ensure that no one is left behind or homeless, the Kochi Municipal Corporation introduced ‘Rapid Response Policy Engagement – Affordable Rental Housing for Internal Migrant’ project in its annual Budget for the year 2021-22. The aim was to engage with relevant stakeholders to collectively devise a policy for ensuring access to affordable rental housing for internal migrants in Kochi. The project was spearheaded by the Kochi Municipal Corporation with the technical support of the University of Reading, United Kingdom and coordinated by the Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (c-hed) in association with the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID).

The policy document prepared as part of the project was presented to the Kochi Municipal Corporation on September 03, 2021 . Prof. Angelique Chettiparamb of Reading University handed over the policy document to Mayor Adv. M. Anilkumar. The function was attended by Deputy Mayor, various Standing Committee chairs, Councillors and Kochi Municipal Corporation officials.

Setting up of Integrated Support Platform for Women Entrepreneurship in Kochi

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Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, communities and cities. With an emphasis on the economic and social upliftment and security of women, Kochi Municipal Corporation with the support of GIZ India launched the Women Entrepreneurship Project ‘Venture Initiation Program – Women (VIP: Women)’under the SDG and Governance component of the SUD-SC. The objectives of the platform are to support the women entrepreneurs to create and innovate projects and develop their businesses and handhold them through their entrepreneurial journey. For the city, the innovation centre/cell would ideate, come up with solutions, evaluate and implement to resolves the issues and challenges. The project is being implemented in Kochi with the technical support of IIMK Live (Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Laboratory for Innovation Venturing and Entrepreneurship) under the coordinated of c-hed.

The pilot program is part of the proposed project to design and develop Integrated Support Platform for Women Entrepreneurship (IPWE) in Kochi. As part of this program, it is proposed to provide entrepreneurial support and services to nurture and develop the ideas of three selected women entrepreneurs into products/services through business ventures. As a pilot phase, three women entrepreneurship projects will be selected through a six week program.

The project was officially launched by the Hon’ble Mayor of Kochi Adv. M. Anil Kumar on August 13, 2021.

 

KOCHI ECO CHALLENGE PROJECT

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On the occasion of the World Environment Day 2021, the Kochi Municipal Corporation is launching the ‘Kochi Eco Challenge’ (Kochi Eco System Challenge) project in collaboration with District Haritha Keralam Mission and Suchitwa  Mission under the leadership of St. Teresa’s College, Ernakulam and C-HED, the Environmental Division of the Kochi Municipal Corporation.

The ‘Kochi Eco Challenge’ is envisioned as a project that aims at the preparation and submission of a scientific plan to identify and document various ecosystem issues  within the limits of the Kochi Municipal Corporation and to formulate practical feasible strategies/  follow-up plans for its restoration and conservation. The ‘Kochi Eco Challenge’ project is conceived in line with the theme ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ set forth by the United Nations in connection with the Environment  Day 2021. 

All educational institutions and student teams under the jurisdiction of the Kochi Municipal Corporation can participate in this challenge. Cash awards will be awarded for the best and most practical proposals selected from the competition entries. School / college level entries will be considered as a separate category. Selected projects will be included in the annual budget of the Kochi Municipal Corporation and implemented.

Proposals must be submitted by November 1, 2021. 

The project application and the scientific plan document should be submitted by email to [email protected]

The guideline document for the project is given below :

Guidelines for Kochi Eco Challenge Project

 

PROJECT LAUNCH :

The Kochi Eco Challenge was launched in a virtual ceremony on 4 June 2021 by Hon’ble Mayor of Kochi Adv. M Anil Kumar. Eminent actors Sri. Indrajith Sukumaran and Smt. Poornima Indrajith will be the brand ambassadors of the Kochi Eco Challenge project and they were the chief guests on the occasion.The Deputy Mayor Ms. Ansiya, Chairpersons of the Standing Committee Chairs, District Educational officer, Ernakulam, AEOs, officials from the Haritha Keralam Mission, the Suchitwa Mission and distinguished academicians from St. Teresa’s , Maharaja’s and Sacred Heart Colleges spoke on the occasion. The Director of C-HED provided details of the challenge guidelines.

The challenge is open to students of all educational institutions.

 

TASK FORCE MEETING

A meeting of the Kochi Eco Challenge task force was held on August 04, 2021.

 

ORIENTATION PROGRAMME

The orientation programme on Kochi Eco Challenge was held virtually on September 20, 2021 under the coordination of Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (c-hed) and St. Teresa’s college, Ernakulam. The orientation programme was attended by more than hundered participants representing different schools and colleges across Kerala.

 

 

 

 

Auto Ambulance service

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An emergency service to cater to the needs of COVID patients, especially transport of COVID patients to hospitals, supply of medicines, oximeter, oxygen cylinder and thermometer and to patients houses, etc kick started yesterday in the city. Covid relief works have been on the radar for Kochi municipal corporation and C-HED has been providing backend support for the operations. The” Auto Ambulance ” service is initiated jointly by the Kochi Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Ernakulam Jilla Autorickshaw Drivers Cooperative Society Ltd. (EJADCS), supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH under the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is funded by the ‘SMART-SUT’ project, which is under the Green Urban Mobility Partnership between India and Germany. This initiative is coordinated and supported by the National Health Mission, Government of Kerala, The Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (C-HED) and Technovia Info Solutions. Pvt. Ltd. In this regard, a training program for 18 volunteering auto drivers and for supporting staff was carried out at the Ernakulam Town Hall. Safety kits (including PPE kits, masks, gloves, face shield) and medical equipment (like pulse Oximeter, infra-red thermo meter, portable oxygen cans) were also handed over to the team.

Policy Presentation- Rapid Response Policy Engagement – Affordable Rental Housing for Internal Migrants

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The city of Kochi is an important place of employment for migrant workers in Kerala. Workers from Tamil Nadu have been living and working in the city for decades. In addition, workers from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and many more can be found in the city today. The migrant workers in any urban centre are often forced to live in unhygienic and unsafe conditions. The case to some extent in Kochi is the same. They are often denied the access to safe and fair accommodation in the city.

In this regard, the Kochi Municipal Corporation decided to prepare and implement a comprehensive plan to address the housing crisis of migrant workers in the city. With an aim to ensure that no one is left behind or homeless, the Kochi Municipal Corporation introduced ‘Rapid Response Policy Engagement – Affordable Rental Housing for Internal Migrant’ project in its annual Budget for the year 2021-22. The aim was to engage with relevant stakeholders to collectively devise a policy for ensuring access to affordable rental housing for internal migrants in Kochi. The project was spearheaded by the Kochi Municipal Corporation with the technical support of the University of Reading, United Kingdom and coordinated by the Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (c-hed) in association with the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID). As part of the project, a local stakeholder workshop and an online colloquium were conducted to gather suggestions from various stakeholders across the country on policy making.

In this regard, the Kochi Municipal Corporation has successfully prepared a draft policy document with the support of the technical team. The policy document was presented before the stakeholders under the aegis of the Hon’ble Mayor of Kochi on May 19, 2021. The online discussion was attended by various local and national stakeholders from across the country. Representatives from National Health Mission, Department of Town and Country Planning, GCDA, Kerala State Housing Board and GIZ also participated in the discussion.

Hybrid Workshop – The Morgenstadt Global Smart City Innovation Lab

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Kochi is one among the Indian cities selected for ‘The Morgenstadt Global Smart City Innovation Lab’. The project is being coordinated and implemented in the city by the C-HED with the technical support of the University of Stuttgart and Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Stuttgart. The other prominent institutions that have partnered in this project are Frankfurt School of Finance and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), Government of India.

The Kochi Municipal Corporation, with view to address the accelerating climate change issues in Kochi city, has included this project (The Morgenstadt Global Smart Cities Initiative (MGI) – Sustainable Neighbourhood project) in its annual budget for the year 2021-22. The MGI project aims at a transformational change of the urban systems through the analysis, identification, and development of sustainable cross‐sectoral solutions to optimize urban infrastructures, processes or services. The project focuses on developing a sustainable neighbourhood, in which all buildings are energetically renovated and restored to their history, all buildings receive a photovoltaic system and in which all buildings are served by a sustainable water and sewage system. The project also aims to integrate more green spaces into the city to make it more resilient to heavy weather events and to improve the urban climate.

After conducting initial surveys and discussions, the project team developed 15 project ideas in the water, energy, inclusive housing and sustainable buildings sectors. As part of the project the first stakeholder consultation workshop was held on April 21, 2020 where Fraunhofer experts presented the city’s profile on the water, energy and housing sector and discussed the project ideas to develop a pilot in Elamakkara North (ward no: 33), the sectors being water, energy and housing. The consultation workshop was held in the presence of Hon’ble Mayor of Kochi and attended by the Director, NIUA, former councillor of the ward, representatives from Kerala Water Authority, Cochin Smart Mission Limited, Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT) and Society of Energy Engineers and Managers (SEEM) and residence associations of above said ward.

ECOLOGISTICS STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION MEETING

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Today the whole world is facing serious climate change issues, as a result of uncontrolled carbon emissions from various sectors mainly transport sector. Our Kochi is one of the areas that suffers the most from its bitter effects. Unscientific transportation is one of the major problems facing Kochi in this regard. Based on this, several projects are being formulated and implemented to make Kochi’s transportation sector more environmentally friendly. The Kochi Municipal Corporation, with a view to address this pressing issue, included a plan to introduce a new policy for freight transport in its annual Budget for the year 2021-22. The project is carried out under the coordination of C-HED with the support of ICLEI South Asia under ‘EcoLogistics: Low Carbon Freight for Sustainable Cities’ supported by International Climate Initiative (IKI) project. As part of the project, a stakeholder consultation meeting was convened on March 24, 2021 to discuss the draft action plan for freight transport in Kochi. The meeting was held in the presence of Hon’ble Mayor of Kochi, Deputy Mayor, Secretary, Councillor Sri. Antony Kureethara, other officials of Kochi Municipal Corporation, RTO, representatives from KMTA, KMRL, various trade and industrial organizations.

RAPID RESPONSE POLICY ENGAGEMENT – ONLINE COLLOQUIUM

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An online workshop on ‘Explore Issues and Solutions for Solving Housing Challenges of Migrant Workers in Kochi, Kerala’ was organized as part of Rapid Response Policy Engagement project on March 16, 2021 as part of the comprehensive planning of the recommendations received from the stakeholder workshop held on March 5, 2021.

Hon’ble Mayor Adv. M Anilkumar presented the city’s vision and action plan related to the living conditions of various migrant workers in Kochi. Kerala State Planning Board member Dr. Ravi Raman spoke on issues including policy formulation to be adopted by local governments in this regard. Many experts in this field also participated in the discussion.  Presentations were done by the experts in the field, Smt. Banasree Banerjee, Smt. Uma Adusmiley, Smt. Renu Desai, Dr.Binoy Peter, Dr.Angelique Chettiparambil and Mr. Rushil Palavajjhala regarding different models in India and around the world. Experts from inside and outside Kerala analysed and spoke on these models. The online workshop was coordinated by C-HED with the support of CMID and University of Reading, UK.

URBAN ENERGY TRANSITION – STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION WORKSHOP

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Kochi, one of the major urban agglomerations in the state is seriously pondering on the need for sustainable energy transition. It has been very proactively discussing and engaging with various stakeholders to identify the opportunities and challenges of clean energy projects within the city. In this regard, the urban energy transition project, the brainchild of the Hon’ble Mayor, intends to take support from relevant State Government agencies like State Planning Board (SPB), ANERT, KSEB, Energy Management Centre and other relevant institutions to identify the high-impact opportunities that can be implemented in the city to align with the state’s sustainable energy policy. The Kochi Municipal Corporation in coordination with the Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development and with the support of WRI India organized a stakeholder consultation workshop which was attended by the above mentioned representatives.