Most of these projects are in various stages of implementation. The civic body is planning to complete 11 major projects under this scheme by 2011.

Currently JNNURM has approved 11 major projects for the city. The project components include solid waste management, water supply, sewerage, surface water drainage, basic services for urban poor, urban road transport, procurement of city buses, Railway overbridges and e-governance. As per the norms, the Centre will provide 50 percent of the project cost while the state and the civic body will have to bear the rest. So far projects worth Rs 735.95 crore have been sanctioned for the city.

Major projects

Solid Waste Management (SWM): Among the JNNURM projects, Rs 88.12 crore has been allocated for solid waste management.

“So far Rs 28.58 crore has been utilised for solid waste management.

The work of the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) plant is in progress. We have already awarded Rs 263 lakh for the civil work for the foundation of RDF plant,’’ said an official with JNNURM. He said that technical sanction was already obtained for the detailed project reports of Kalamassery and Tripunithura municipalities for SWM projects estimated at Rs 4.29 and Rs 5.36 crores respectively.

Surface Water Drainage (SWD)

A total of Rs 9.78 crore has been allocated for 18 packages of work under surface water drainage. Five packages have been completed so far including the drain through Power House Road, widening of Mullassery Canal and drain through Parambithara Road to Koyithara thodu. Work is in progress for five packages.

So far Rs 2.96 crore of the fund has been utilised.

Purchase of city buses

For this prestigious project Rs 71 crore was allocated under which the Kochi Corporation will get 200 buses, including AC low-floor and mini buses. Seven lowfloor buses have already started plying on city roads. Four more Volvo buses will be introduced soon.

E-governance

The Government of India approved the detailed project report on May 2009 for Rs 8.70 crore e-governance project. Once it is implemented, Kochi will become the first Corporation in Kerala to have its main office as well as zonal offices fully computerised. The major online services that will be brought under the egovernance system include utility management, property tax, registration of births and deaths, water supply and other utilities, grievances and suggestions and building approvals. Wipro has been appointed as the programme management consultancy and the publishing of tender with functional requirement solution is expected to be floated within two weeks.

Heritage and tourism

The Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) has given clearance to the Broadway heritage conservation project proposal submitted by the Kochi Corporation last week. The Rs 22 crore project mainly aims at renovating Broadway by preserving its heritage.

Out of the Rs 93.37 crore released last financial year, 87.88 percent in SWM, 25.13 percent in water supply, 37.95 percent in drainage, .95 percent in sewerage and 95.26 percent in BSUP have been utilised.

“Some projects are lagging behind because of problems related to land acquisition, shifting existing utilities, infrastructure deficits and inability to raise funds. But we are hopeful of completing the work within the stipulated time,” said Mayor Mercy Williams.

“While implementing development projects, we have to ensure that urbanisation is carried out in a planned manner,’’ she added.