KOCHI: Kochi, which had been lagging in the implementation of Smart City Mission projects, has finally improved its ranking. In the Smart City ranking published by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Wednesday, the city ranked 21 out of 100 cities selected under Smart Cities Mission. It was ranked 54th in September last year. The new rankings have taken into account the efforts of the Cochin Smart Mission Ltd (CSML) in implementing the projects.
“CSML faced several issues related to the availability of land approvals, lack of bidders and others. We are almost in the last phase of tender procedures and implementation of many projects are on. Kochi has moved to the higher ranking as efforts in implementation of projects carried out by CSML got higher weightage,” said CSML CEO Alkesh Kumar Sharma.He said a smart city can offer several facilities to improve the life of the city’s denizens.
“We hope that all the projects taken up by CSML will help in raising the quality of life of people of the city,” he said. The revised City Ranking Formula took into account indices like the value of tendered projects, value of projects where work order was issued, value of completed projects and value of convergence projects.
At present, projects worth 65 per cent of the Smart Cities funds are in various stages of implementation. CSML also expects to award projects worth Rs 150 crore in the coming months. The projects implemented on e-health solutions in General Hospital by CSML recently bagged the Best Smart Health Project honour under the Smart City- Empowering India Awards.