Monthly Archives: February 2015

Twin City Programme between Kochi and Menlo Park

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Kochi, the home of Startup Village, Infopark and upcoming Smart City signed a MoU with the US City, Menlo Park. A 3 member delegation led by the Mayor of Menlo Park Catherine Carlton along Mr. Ray Mueller, Menlo Park City Council Member and Mukul Agarwal, Bootup Ventures Managing Partner visited Kochi City as part of the twin city programme.It is the first twin city agreement between Menlo Park and any Indian city, and it aims to create a bridge between Silicon Valley and the emerging Silicon Coast in Kerala.

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One of the objectives of the twin city agreement is to promote sharing of talent and ideas in the technology sector, thus boosting employment opportunities in both the countries. The agreement would establish a year of cultural exchange during which the two cities will create a framework to encourage interactions between their citizens. Through this collaboration, Kochi will be able to get to the global stage and emerge as a key player in the telecom-technology sector and also aim to boost Landing Pad, a project supported by the Kerala Government at the Silicon Valley.

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The project is being coordinated by c-hed for the Kochi Municipal Corporation.

Solutions Project (Sharing Opportunities for Low carbon Urban Transporation)

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The UN-Habitat supported European Union funded SOLUTIONS (Sharing Opportunities for Low carbon Urban transporTatION) is one of the major ongoing project of Cochin City. The project aims to support the exchange on innovative and green urban mobility solutions between cities from Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean. The project also focuses on the uptake of innovative and green urban mobility solutions across the world through dialogues and exchanges.

Cochin is one of the take-up cities and has been 1teamed-up with the City of Hangzhou (China) with ICLEI as the take-up Coach. As a next step towards this project, a team led by the Project Manager of SOLUTIONS, Oliver Lah, visited Cochin and interacted with the officials and other stakeholders.  The project is progressing and is coordinated by c-hed for Cochin.

The project is being coordinated by c-hed for the Kochi Municipal Corporation.

Mosques of Cochin

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The world famous Architect Smt. Patricia Fels in association with c-hed had made a detailed study about the vernacular mosques in Cochin and published the same as a book named “Mosques of Cochin” in association with Mapin Publication.

Mosques of Cochin is an invaluable contribution the documents the surviving vernacular mosques, which stand as powerful and visible expressions of Islam’s integration into the culture of Malabar. Mosques of Cochin help in understanding the cultural and social value of the traditional architecture of Kerala. The book documents a rapidly vanishing architecture of the vernacular mosques in Cochin.

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As part of the book launch, a detailed discussion on the challenges of maintaining the old mosques in Cochin had been held in association with c-hed. A detailed presentation on the book was made by the author Patricia Tusa Fels.

The entire programme was coordinated by c-hed.

Solar City Draft Master Plan

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The draft master plan of the Solar City project for the Cochin City prepared by International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) was presented before various stakeholders by Ashish Verma, Manager (Energy and Climate) of the Institute. The goal behind the project is to reduce at least 10 percent of the projected total demand of conventional energy at the end of five years by using renewable energy. The Solar City project is being launched as part of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) plan to develop 60 solar cities in India. Once implemented, Kochi will be the first city in Kerala to get the Solar City tag.

The suggestions, recommendations given by the stakeholders will also be incorporated in the draft. The final draft will be presented to the Kochi Municipal Corporation for its approval and the revised document will be submitted to the Ministry for approval. The Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT), Thiruvananthapuram has been identified as the nodal agency for the implementation of the project.

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The budget for the programme will be shared by the state government, Ministry for New and Renewal Energy and Kochi Municipal Corporation. According to the draft document, a Solar City cell and a Solar City stakeholder committee will have to be set up for implementing the master plan.

Hon’ble Mayor Shri. Tony Chammany, Deputy Mayor Smt. Bhadra B, Kochi Municipal Corporation Town Planning Standing Committee Chairman Shri. K J Sohan, Kochi Municipal Corporation Secretary Shri. V R Raju was also present in the meeting.

The project is being coordinated by c-hed for the Kochi Municipal Corporation.

Edapally – Vytilla National Highway Beautification

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The National Highway stretch from Vytila to Edapally is one of the most frequented public spaces in the State of Kerala. This broad stretch which passes through the heart of the Cochin city also plays an important role in regulating and decongesting the traffic conditions of the Cochin city. The Kochi Municipal Corporation has been receiving many complaints with regard to the poor maintenance of this stretch. It is against this backdrop that the Kochi Municipal Corporation has come forward to clean this stretch and beautify it with flowering plants and maintaining it for a stipulated period as per the specifications and guidelines of the National Highway Authority of India and included the project in Mission Kochi 15-8-15 campaign of the Kochi Municipal Corporation.

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The Kochi Municipal Corporation’s ambitious project for city beautification under the Mission Kochi 15-8-15 was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Excise, Ports and Fisheries Minister Shri. K Babu on January 24th, 2015. A stakeholders committee, Kochi Bypass Beautification Society, had been constituted for undertaking the project under the supervision of the Kochi Municipal Corporation. The society has city’s leading businessmen as its members. V-Guard Groups Chairman Shri. Kochouseph Chittilappilly is the Chairman of the Society, Eastern Group Project Director Shri. M.E Mohammed is the Secretary and the Manager of Holiday Inn Shri. P.C. John is the treasurer of the Society. The National Highway Authority of India has given permission to beautify and maintains the stretch for a period of 3 years.

The stakeholders had spent an amount of Rs 1 Crore for the beautification of the stretch in addition to the maintenance cost of Rs 37 Lakh spent by the Kochi Municipal Corporation. 20000 saplings were planted on the central median on 4.6 km of the 6 km long stretch. The side medians along with the service roads would also be beautified in future as the 2nd phase of the beautification project.

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Shri. Benny Behanan MLA was the chief guest in the inaugural function. The inaugural function was presided by Hon’ble Mayor, Shri. Tony Chammany, attended by Shri. T.J. Vinod, Chairman, Development Standing Committee, Kochi Municipal Corporation, Smt. Saumini Jain, Chairperson, Public Works Standing Committee, Kochi Municipal Corporation, Shri. R. Thyagarajan, Chairman, Education and Sports Standing Committee, Kochi Municipal Corporation, Shri. V. R Raju, Secretary, Kochi Municipal Corporation and other key stakeholders.

The project is being coordinated by the Centre for Heritage, Environment  and Development (c-hed) for the Kochi Municipal Corporation.