Kochi is going the smart way soon. Yes, after so much of confusion, years of awaiting, and political gimmicks playing the villain, Kochi is all set to become the ‘Smart City’. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated construction of the 2000 crore project at Kakkanad on the 8^th of October 2011.

Kochi had to wait for long seven years to finally make this dream a reality. Even though the initial discussions happened in the year 2004 (when Kunhalikutty was the Industries Minister), the project never saw light. Governments changed. People hoped for the best from each government. But all these years, nothing worthwhile happened. With issues of freehold land rights arising, the rift with Tecom authorities and so on, plans of Smart City had to be nearly withdrawn.

The project will have a built-up area of 88 laksh sq. ft, and this can provide work opportunities for more than 90,000 people. The construction will be completed in another six years, and this will change the face of Kochi. IT professionals will not have to run all the way to Bangalore or Hyderabad now!

Green has so much to boast about- the colour of nature, soothing, calming and comforting. The tags are many. Kochi has lost its ‘green factor’ long back. Accept it, we are far away from the label of a ‘green city’. We have been witnessing this tremendous growth (which we hope will be for the best) in the recent few months. It has all been in papers, and now we need to just see how well they shall be implemented. From Smart city to Metro rails, progress in nearby islands to construction of malls and more, the list seems to be quite interesting.

In this juncture, we need to take a few lessons from cities like Bangalore. They planted and preserved ‘green’ extremely well. How can we forget the label ‘garden city of India’ which was associated to the one of the smartest and beautiful cities in the country? So let’s get to the question how we can conserve the remaining bits of greenery in our city premises. Arjun Mohanan, a 25 year old resident of Thripunithura adds a few tips to this. “Kochi unquestionably is losing out on its ‘greenness’. I think we need more parks so that kids can come and play once in a while. I remember the days when we used to spend our Sunday evenings at Children’s park. When do kids of today get to do all that? Parks are a smart way of preserving green”, says Arjun. He also adds, “I really doubt if our government would take such initiatives. It would take a few lakhs and some good souls to do this”, chuckles Arjun.

Well, for some, having rooftop gardens are quite a good IDEA! Anand Unni, who works with a software company in Kochi, says that there is nothing like having a garden in your home terrace or apartment balconies. “This is something which we can do ourselves. We need no political giants to nod heads to this, or sanction from the Corporation. Grow your own garden” says this techie. We could do this. A tedious job though, but can bear good fruits. So why not?

Kochi ain’t a city where trees are unwelcomed! Being the commercial capital of ‘God’s own country’, the responsibility of taking care and safeguarding them is every Kochiites responsibility and duty. Let’s abide by this and do something worthwhile for the city we live in.

For Vimal Xavier Puthenveetil, who stays at Vaduthala, preserving the existing greenery is the biggest priority. “Road side shade trees like the one at Avenue Road (near Maharajas ground) should be taken care of. And yeah, places like Mangalavanam in the heart of the city is something that needs immediate attention and consideration lest they do not fade away in the books of time”, says Vimal. “Kochi is developing at an amazingly rapid pace. Hope Kochiites and the concerned authorities join hands for this cause”, adds Vimal.

In Kochi, where cutting trees are meant for a ‘development cause’, let’s show the world that Kochiites can be kind-hearted and thoughtful, and not do heinous deeds that can pose a threat to nature. GO GREEN!

Election results are going to be out in a couple of days, and Kochi is gearing up to spot who is going to take on the lead for our ‘smart city’ . With pioneers like Hibi Eden and Sebastian Paul contesting this time, ‘guessing is tough’! The dawn of 13th shall mark the new leader’s takeover of the city. The surrounding main centres including Aluva, Tripunithura etc. is also ‘crossing their fingers’ and hoping for the best man to lead them. And only 13th evening can say who shall own what!

The main centre for counting votes this time is going to be our evergreen Maharajas College. Each centre shall have 14 tables for counting. And since this is an inch-to-inch election, the whole process of counting and announcing too looks like a scary process. And like every year, the counting shall start when the clock strikes 8 (in the morning). The leads shall be announced by 8.30 a.m. Thanks to our channels, we shall get live updates every second. Looks like, they have already set up equipments and reporters for the updates at the main
centres.

Young Kochi thinks its Hibi’s era for the next few years to come. But with a leader like Sebastian Paul contesting opposite him, assumptions and guesses play no pivotal role here. Let’s all now wait for 13th , for the ‘final judgement’.

Come monsoon and the Queen of the Arabian is set to be lashed by the Monsoon rains, in due time perhaps. Considering the way the weather is going, monsoon is as much as a mystery in its coming as is the Smart City. But I would place a fair bet on the monsoon though. Leaving that aside, we look into the bigger picture. Right now our city is besieged by poor traffic planning, ever increasing car numbers (which doesn’t look dwindling anytime), rash and uncontested driving by the private buses, irritating and confusing traffic rules and those cones that just stick out of nowhere. Chaos in short.

Add rain to that equation, what do we have? Motorists and pedestrians will be having a nightmare soon, the city is yet to enforce a transparent system to overcome the possible traffic lock-downs that could be faced by us. Although with roads being fixed slowly and the gutters gutted, it is but the tip of the iceberg yet to be tackled by the city officials. Considering how well manicured Bangalore has managed to run its traffic system, we surely can take a page out of it.

The motorists aren’t the only people to be considered in the equation, pedestrians have equal share in the chaos, with their wanton crossings while a lane gets the green light. Its like one of the 80′s arcade games, you just chance to not hit the person crossing. Why all this bother when people can wait it out? Its not ignorance I would suppose as we have one of the highest literacy rates. Its just how our people have become and its high time we change our attitudes, the common folk and the city officials.

Kochi is remarkably is breaking even for the KSRTC low-floor buses and the A.C volvos, while the ones at Trivandrum are running at a loss. That proves that a lot of people prefer the KSRTC for city travel over the private buses. By increasing traffic routes and slowly curbing the private buses we can at the least hope to have a more better transitional traffic within the city. One where buses aren’t competing to reach stops as though its a scene straight out of one the popular Hollywood movies centered on street racing. And while we are it, Car Pool anyone?
According to urban dictionary

Carpool
When 2 or more individuals share an automobile during a commute to a destination or location.

Carpools are frequently used for fellow employees, students, and/or parents of school children.

By Carpooling, you can save money on gasoline, minimize your impact on the environment, and meet new people.

We have embraced the mall culture and so on of the west why not such practices too? It may be untold to do such a thing to share rides when people have so many stigmas bases on ego and social standings, but face it we have little choice, i.e if we rather slog it like always and enjoy the 1 hour ride on a 10 km stretch. And on the note of saving fuel and being ecologically responsible, how many of us has bothered to turn off our vehicles while stuck at a red light? Let it for a couple of minutes, collectively, that means a considerable amount. Quite some months ago some activists had stood around intersections with signs asking people to switch their engines off and they easily complied, but as a passing fad it was soon forgotten. Simple things like this can totally turn around things for the city in a good way.

Traffic, ecology, etiquette, its a long list. But being the foremost city in Kerala and a growing one at that, we need to restructure ourselves and our mentality. In years to come with IT businesses coming and shipping terminals and such also shaping up, investors and people from outside our state and our nation will start coming down in droves to this little city. We should certainly have something worth offering otherwise we are bound to end up as a cess-pool of mediocrity while the rest of India just goes ahead with the new decade. We have a very long way to go, infrastructural-wise, practices-wise etc, it is the hard truth we have to face, but we have to face it nonetheless.

I am not going to end this post with some corny tag-line asking everyone to join their hands and make a better Kochi. But we owe it to the city to make it a better Kochi for generations to come and ourselves.

Feel free to add your views and opinions.