Coimbatore – An Emerging Real Estate Destination

When property prices across the country shot up sharply, several tier II and tier III cities clocked a higher rate of growth than even the metros. Once the market sentiments turned negative, the downward spiral in prices were faster in these second and third-rung cities, as investors dropped them from their portfolio.

While the market has more or less stopped even thinking about these cities, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM), a global property advisory company, has identified Coimbatore as an exception and has called it a city that offers a lot of potential for growth in the future. The company has recently brought out a white paper, ‘Coimbatore – An Emerging Real Estate Destination,’ which traces the evolution of the city’s real estate market, identifies its numerous market drivers and showcases its prospects as the perfect south Indian real estate investment destination.“It is time to sit up and take notice of Coimbatore’s status as a highly-promising, alternative IT/ITeS and biotech destination,” Ramesh Nair, managing director, Chennai and Hyderabad, JLLM, said. “This city has everything, including telecom, power, a highly-skilled workforce, a rapid pace of infrastructure development and a proactive government that is aggressively promoting the city,” he said.

The study mentions Coimbatore’s high literacy rate, the pace at which top multinationals are migrating to the city and the manner in which the retail, hospitality, entertainment and residential sectors are growing as promising. The study confidently concludes that Coimbatore, the second fastest growing city in Tamil Nadu after Chennai, is indeed a boom story.“Our findings in this study indicate that Coimbatore will emerge as a favoured destination for real estate investment in the long run,” said Abhishek Kiran Gupta, head of research, JLLM. “There is a huge potential for local, national as well as international developers in the real estate sector in Coimbatore. We are of the opinion that there is no better time than now for developers, investors, tenants and homeowners to strategise and collaborate to reap the long-term benefits of right investments in the right place,” he said.

Coimbatore, which has a high literacy rate, looks all set to scale new heights as a preferred destination for corporate firms to expand their business presence. Over the next four-five years, Coimbatore is likely to add close to 100,000 jobs, which will in turn contribute to the growth in the per capita income of the city, the white paper said.

The report says the global meltdown, which has exerted severe macro-economic pressure on the industry, has not left Coimbatore untouched. However, the city’s entrepreneurial spirit, combined with all its unique advantages, when compared with other neighbouring tier III cities, would act as growth drivers. While the effects of the economic crisis are only a short-term challenge for all stakeholders of the real estate industry, Coimbatore is likely to emerge as a hot destination for real estate investments in the long run, the paper concluded.

Pilloor II Water Supply Scheme Likely By Mid 2010

Collector P.Umanath (left) and Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra (right) inspecting construction of a water treatment plant on Thursday at Velliangadu for the dedicated Pilloor Water Supply Scheme for the city. The second phase of the Pilloor Drinking Water Supply scheme will be ready by mid 2010, said Collector P. Umanath and Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra here on Thursday.

They were talking to reporters at the Vellingadu water treatment plant about 45 to 50 km from here after inspecting the six packages of works under progress. Though the contract agreement period stretches up to September/October in all the six works, officials were confident of work being completed a few months ahead of schedule. Once Pilloor II phase scheme was commissioned, Coimbatore Corporation would get about 200 mld.
At present, Siruvani scheme was getting about 65 to 70 mld per day while of the 120 mld withdrawn from Pilloor, the city was getting close to 65 mld.

When the dedicated Pilloor water supply scheme is commissioned, it would give 120 mld. The scheme has been designed in such a way that the infrastructure would hold good for the next 40 years.The supply of 65 mld drawn from the existing Pilloor water supply scheme would be then made available to the wayside habitations being served now and to 440-odd new habitations.The six packages of works included two pumping stations at Periyakombai Hills and Kattan hills and in other places the flow would be by gravity, officials said.

Regarding construction of overhead reservoirs, Mr. Anshul Mishra said that the work was being entrusted to consultants for deciding on the number of over head tanks, capacity and their locations. Of the entire route length of 34.25 km, 9.4 km would be pre-stressed concrete pipes and the rest would be mild steel pipes.Once Pilloor scheme is commissioned, the dependency on Siruvani would come down to just 33 per cent, Mr. Mishra said.

Dr. Umanath and Mr. Mishra said that water level in Pilloor was comfortable and the storage in Siruvani scheme had improved to 870 ft as against the full reservoir level of 878.5 ft. The reservoir area witnessed a rainfall of 115 mm, highest rainfall in the last one year. From a lowest of 864.9 ft, the storage had improved by more than 5 mts in the last two to three weeks. With rainfall and inflow into the reservoirs continuing, officials said that if the rainfall level continued at the same rate the reservoir would surplus in the next 10 to 15 days.

Health Expo Organised By Ganga Hospital

District Collector P. Umanath (second right) takes a look at a stall after inaugurating the Mediscience and Health Exhibition at the Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore on Thursday. The 4-day health expo organised by the Ganga Hospital and Medical Centre is a must-see, especially for children. Meant to enlighten them on the need to lead a healthy life, the expo was inaugurated on Thursday by District Collector P.Umanath. Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra was the Guest of Honour.

The objective of the Mediscience and Health Exhibition 2009 is to create awareness on preventive medicine, give an insight into the great strides achieved in the health sciences, educate the children on road safety measures and impress upon them to learn first aid. According to a release from S.Rajasekaran, Director of the hospital, the expo showcases the advances made in orthopaedics, plastic surgery and microsurgery, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, neonatology, anaesthesiology, burns, physiotherapy, transfusion medicine, diabetology, intensive care medicine and facio-maxillary surgery.

The obstetrics stall hosts a video show depicting the growth of the foetus inside the mother’s womb and the various stages of its development. The Intensive Care Unit stall delineates the advances made in the treatment of critically-ill patients. The Anaesthesia stall illustrates the advancements made in local and region-wise anaesthesia which helps in speedy recovery of the patients. Students also get an opportunity to learn about advanced surgical techniques.

Various organ system models of the body including caridovasuclar, respiratory, central nervous, musculo skeletal and genito urinary systems are on display. A separate stall has been put up for Road Safety Awareness and a live demo is also extended to teach the students on the basics of first aid and basic life support. The expo provides an opportunity to learn about advanced surgical techniques in spine surgery, joint replacement surgery, complex limb surgery, fixation of fractures, limb re-implantation surgery and microvasuclar reconstructive surgery. The ‘Melting Man’ and the ‘Talking Head’ stalls are a real visual treat for the young ones. The exhibition is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Meeting On “Fuelling South India’s Energy Growth”

Ahmed Abdul Rahman Buhari, president and CEO of Coal and Oil Group of Companies at a session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association in Coimbatore. South India will be one of the two engines of India’s growth, next only to the Western part of the country, according to Ahmed A.R. Buhari, Founder President and Chief Executive Officer of Coal and Oil Group of Companies.

Speaking at a meeting on “Fuelling South India’s Energy Growth”, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association, here on Wednesday, he said that India was re-emerging as a super power. In the 1000s India’s share in the global GDP was 36 per cent. In the 1800s it was 16 per cent and 5 per cent in the 1950s. Currently, it was about 8.5 per cent and rapidly increasing.

India and China were the drivers of global growth. The global growth in 2008 was about 2.5 per cent and it was predicted to be 0.9 per cent in 2009. Next year, India would be the fastest growing economy. India had a long way to go in power capacities. The demand for power was growing at eight to 10 per cent and about $ 600 billion investment was needed over the next 10 years in the sector. The government targeted 78,000 MW installations between 2006-2007 and 2011-2012. With the feel good factor and investments, South India would be a key driver for India’s growth. It would need more power and the shortfall in Tamil Nadu was expected to be about 3,300 MW by 2011.

K. Kasthurirangaian, chairman of the Indian Wind Power Association, said with all villages in the State electrified and more industries investing, the State required more power. While the energy consumption rate was growing rapidly, generation was not. Of the total installed capacity in Tamil Nadu, 657 MW was nuclear, 2093 MW was hydel, 4379 MW was wind and the rest was thermal. Though several power projects were proposed to augment generation, it remained to be seen how many would materialise.

Kerala Craft Fair

Handicrafts on display at the Kerala Craft Fair at the Gujarati Samaj in the city. Single piece woodcarvings and coconut shells and stems artefacts at ‘Kairali’ exhibition organised by the Kerala Government at Gujarati Samaj bring in uniqueness. The exhibits include various kinds of hangings, frames, boxes and household utilities made from sandalwood, rosewood and white cedar wood.

According to T.P. Subhash, a store assistant, the sale proceeds go to artisans directly. Frames of different kinds also held a special place. The prices range from Rs.10 to Rs.6, 000. The exhibition will be on till July 12.