A kick-off meeting was organised on the 28th of September, 2017 at the Grand Hotel in Kochi for the project entitled “Energy interventions in Kochi as part of their Smart City Plan”. The meeting was chaired by the mayor of Kochi Municipal Corporation and was attended by a diverse set of stakeholders including Kochi Municipal Corporation, state government departments, local commerce and businesses, resident welfare associations, local NGOs etc. The objective of the meeting was to gather ideas from these stakeholders on the implementation aspect of the solar city master plan.

WRI – India and ICLEI South Asia have presented different approaches to get the recommendation of the solar city master plan implemented in a specific manner so that the targets of the solar city plan can be met as per the desired timelines. The key strategies that were suggested include – revising the solar city master plan with the identification of new targets, preparing a specific action plan targeted towards identifying energy hot spots in the city, implement pilot projects in those areas. In addition, the formation of a joint action team was also suggested so that all the key departments can come together and prepare a conducive strategy to get the measures implemented.

The stakeholders then took part in an open discussion, and gave their suggestions with regards to the implementation strategy. There were suggestions ranging from designating nodal agency to become the aggregator of renewable energy projects to identifying target consumers for kick starting the implementation strategy. WRI – India and ICLEI South Asia have received all the suggestion and will work on a feasible strategy to implement the action plan in a time bound manner. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to all the stakeholders present during the event.