The State government of Kerala has nominated Kochi City as its choice from among the five municipal corporations for the 100 Smart Cities programme.
The ministry has offered to extend Rs. 100 crore-support (approx. $15 million USD) each for the 100 select cities to improve the urban infrastructure and to introduce smart solutions in various walks of urban governance including e-governance and citizen services, waste, water and energy management and urban mobility.
Going by the ministry guidelines, Kerala was allotted just one smart city. The 100 smart cities would be distributed among the States and Union Territories based on a formula which would give “equal weightage to urban population of the State/UT and the number of statutory towns” in them.