‘Medical Transcription Outsourcing Capital !

There is more to Coimbatore than just being the ‘Manchester of South India' with its burgeoning textile and engineering industries. This third largest city in Tamil Nadu and home to the Formula 3 circuit has, over the years, emerged as one of the top destinations for the IT-BPO industry.

In fact, according to a recent study by Cyber Media's Global Services and investment advisory firm Tholons, Coimbatore has been ranked in the 17th position in the list of the top 50 Emerging Global Outsourcing cities. Industry associations have been making concerted efforts to turn this industrial hub into another Silicon Valley. The Coimbatore zone of the CII has been, for nearly a decade now, promoting this industrial hub as an ‘ideal IT destination' for engineering process outsourcing (EPO), among others. The region has carved a niche for itself in engineering, auto components and machine tools space.

Industry experts say the locational advantage that the city enjoys, its proximity to Chennai and Bangalore, the huge talent pool and its entrepreneurial culture differentiates Coimbatore from other destinations. A number of companies across the gamut of outsourcing (from EPO to legal and medical transcription) have started their operations to capitalise on the rich pool of talent and resources readily available here.

Statistics reveal that there are over 27 engineering colleges, 70+ arts and science colleges and 18 polytechnics in and around here, making it an ideal recruitment destination as well. Retention of talent pool has been a strong point for most of the players establishing a presence here.

IT major Cognizant, for instance, was one of the first major players to start a development centre here and has since expanded rapidly. Its Vice-President and Head, Vishnu Potty, admits to Coimbatore being a strong sourcing base for its operations across India. Cognizant's Coimbatore centre focuses on financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and retail, media and entertainment.The city is set to emerge as the ‘Medical Transcription Outsourcing Capital of India', say leaders in the medical transcription space.

Players such as CBay Systems and Spheris have expanded their operations here rapidly. CBay, for instance, has its largest facility here in an area of about 20,000 sq.ft. The company has, in the last eight months, opened up two centres, initiated tie-ups with local colleges to rope in students. A few others are exploring opportunities across the landscape as this (medical transcription) industry is predominantly South-based.

Being the chosen hub for MT, the city also has a number of people travelling from smaller towns such as Salem, Erode, Pollachi and Udhagamandalam attracted towards this steadily growing industry.

“The availability of quality manpower, large talent pool of almost 28,000 non-graduate engineers passing out every year from the 260-odd institutions has made Coimbatore an attractive destination for us,” says Suresh Nair, CEO and Managing Director, Spheris.

Industry leaders believe that with requisite training, the prospective candidates could be groomed to become world class medical transcriptionists to cater to the $200-billion healthcare outsourcing business world-wide.

Create infrastructure before Tamil meet: RAAC

The Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) has called upon the government establishments concerned, including the Coimbatore Corporation, to begin infrastructure development now so that the city could accommodate the huge inflow of people during the World Tamil Conference next year.

Link roads

Honorary secretary of the association R. Raveendran has said in a statement that efforts must begin now to improve the condition of the roads and even lay some of the planned link roads to ease congestion on the existing thoroughfares.

The ring roads planned 15 years ago and more than 100 link roads should be laid. Mr. Raveendran said that at least some of the 10 development projects that it placed as demands during the Lok Sabha elections should be taken up now in order to improve the conditions in the city before the conference began.

Schemes

Apart from road projects, RAAC had demanded a Coimbatore Urban Development Authority, implementation of various schemes under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, a passenger train network in the district and other advanced transportation systems.

Initiative

Honorary secretary R.R. Balasundaram pointed out that improvements to infrastructure, mainly roads, had been carried out in Thanjavur ahead of the conference more than two decades ago.A similar initiative could be taken up in Coimbatore also, he said.

Modernisation of non-metro airports in 2 yrs

Expansion and modernisation work on 35 non-metro airports in the country is on schedule and would be completed in two years,Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here today.
"Everything is on schedule. Progress is there and we will complete it in two years," he told reporters at the airport here during his brief halt on his return from Tirunallar, famous for the Lord Saneeswaran temple.

The non-metro airports included two in Tamil Nadu- Madurai and Coimbatore, he said.Patel said the economic recession has resulted in a 30 per cent decline in passenger traffic, but in the last one or two months, "it is improving and returning to normal.

Multi-storeyed buildings zones in other cities to be studied

The Coimbatore Corporation will study the system adopted in other cities in the State for declaring multi-storeyed building zones before implementing it in Coimbatore city.This decision was taken at an all-party meeting held at the Corporation on Thursday.Among other proposals, the meeting was convened to also discuss the one for declaring areas along more than 60 roads in the city as MSB zones.

This proposal was placed in the Corporation Council on September 11 for its approval.But, it ran into resistance from a section of the councillors, chiefly those belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and those in the Town Planning Committee.The members wanted to know why the proposal was placed in the Council directly without routing it through the committee.

Allegation

When they alleged attempts to get approval for the proposal without discussions involving elected representatives, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra explained that it was placed in the Council only to enable all the councillors to take part in the discussion on the proposal.Mr. Mishra also pointed out that this was not the final list and that the suggestions of the councillors could be considered.This was why the proposal was placed in the Council, he said.The Commissioner also said that a survey could be done to identify more places that could be added to the list.The Commissioner of Town Planning in Chennai had in a letter to the Commissioner said that all areas along 60 ft roads could be declared MSB zones.

This decision was taken following a representation from the Coimbatore Property Developers’ Association.The Commissioner of Town Planning had asked the Corporation Commissioner to submit a list of such roads. Accordingly, the Corporation identified 64 roads. These included key roads such as Tiruchi Road, Cross-Cut Road, D.B. Road, 100 Feet Road, Thadagam Road, Perur Road, Sivananda Colony Road, Dr. Nanjappa Road, State Bank Road, V.K.K. Menon Road, Raja Street and Pollachi Road.

Move welcomed

The Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) has welcomed the Government decision to permit multi-storeyed buildings zones.Honorary secretary of RAAC R.R. Balasundaram said that since its inception, RAAC had been requesting the Corporation, Local Planning Authority and the State Government to permit multi-storeyed buildings only along roads that were 40 ft wide and above.

Draft rules

“In this regard, we have prepared a detailed draft building rules and submitted these to the Government. But, till date no steps have been taken on the revised DCR and Master Plan for Coimbatore, which are a need of the hour,” he said.“We welcome this announcement and request the [Corporation] Commissioner not to permit construction on narrow roads. We also request the Government to publish the new DCR and Master Plan for Coimbatore after getting public opinion,” Mr. Balasundaram said.

BSNL launches EVDO Data cards

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s EVDO Data cards priced at Rs. 3,500 to access CDMA Wireless in Local Loop internet with surfing speed up to 2.4 Mbps is now available at Ram Nagar, Race Course, Peelamedu, Ganapathy, Saravanampatti, Kurichi, Thudialur, Perianaickenpalayam, Mettuppalayam and Udumalpet . The cards are available at BSNL customer service centres. Monthly charges for unlimited internet with roaming facility will be Rs. 650.

BSNL is also organising road shows to showcase and sell new mobile prepaid plans such as Tamil Nadu Vasantham (one year validity), Tamil Nadu Anant 20 (Life Time validity), booking of BSNL landline/WLL with waiver of installation charges Rs 500, 2 Mbps Broadband at Rs 99 per month onwards, mobile CDMA, WLL prepaid, Free EPABX, Centrex, EVDO data card and other services. The shows will be held at various places till September 19 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on all days.

On September 10, the show will be at Poolavadi, PSGR Krishnammal College, Chettipalayam and RP mobiles. On September 11 it would be at Ambarampalayam, Mudalipalayam Telephone Exchange, Annur bus stand, TVS Nagar bus stop, On September 12 at Valparai near Gandhi Statue, Devanurpudur, Sundarapuram, Lovely Mobiles and Ganesapuram bus stop. On September 13 the road show will be near Valparai Gandhi statue, Pollachi near Nachimuthu Polytechnic College Telephone Exchange. On September 14, Avanashi Road, Rathna Regent, Perumanallur Four roads, Komaralingam and Thudialur bus stand. On September 15 at Pedappampatti, Singanallur ESI Hospital, Sundarapuram, Haneef Mobiles, Mettuppalayam near State Bank of India. On September 16 at Palladam four roads, Kottur Sungam, Tirupur- Avanashi Road RTO North office, Sai Baba Temple, Kovilpalayam.

On September 17 at Bharathi Colony Gopal Naidu School, Malumichampatti Chellandiamman store, Karamadai near Ranganathar Temple,

On September 18 at Kinathukkadavu bus stand, NSR Road near Pasumai Pharmacy, Tirupur-Pallada Road RTo South Office, Palladam market Road, Mettuppalayam Badrakaliamman Temple. On September 19 it would be at Pollachi Erisanampatti, Lakshmi Mills Junction, Premier Mills, Archana Mobiles, Othakkalmandapam and Karamadai Then Tirupati.

Provogue ventures into real estate !

Sources tell that Provogue, the retail player is looking to foray in its residential development sector. 20-40% of the land from Prozone, which is into mixed use development projects, will be converted and used for housing development.

Liberty International, which is Provouge’s partner for these mall destinations, will continue to remain the partner even for the housing development part of it, now in the Prozone project it could probably be the first one to see residential development to take place, one of the reasons is that retailers have downsized their rental space demand in these malls. So the company has a lot of property which can be developed for other users and plus residential projects always deliver on a faster turnaround basis. The company says that it is indeed working on a residential development plan although nothing concrete has been decided yet.

The first Prozone is expected to become operational by May 2010 in Aurangabad. There are other projects which have been developed for companies like Indore, Coimbatore, Nagpur and interestingly Jaipur and Lucknow which are two main projects for Provouge. So Prozone Mall destinations have been shelved for a while and the company is exploring other options as to how it can use this land further.

ICCI Protested The Powercut

The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Coimbatore, has protested the unscheduled power cuts and disconnection of power supply to factories for minor violation during peak hours by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). ICCI president Mahendra Ramdas said that the TNEB had enforced a 40 per cent cut on both maximum demand and energy for high tension industries. This was reduced to 30 per cent on May 26 and further to 20 per cent on June 14 citing the improved wind power generation as the reason. However, in reality the unscheduled power cuts had increased in the last 15 days. The factories were unable to use even the allocated units and in almost all factories the units had lapsed during July. The board was also not allowing grace period when the peak hour restrictions were enforced.

In many units, the maximum demand readings shot up due to technical problems. Due to this, the TNEB was resorting to power disconnection for 48 hours. The industries were already reeling under the impact of recession and raising costs and such disconnection would affect them to a greater extent. Hence, the Chamber appealed to the Electricity Minister, Arcot N Veerasamy, to instruct the field units to ensure uninterrupted power supply and allow allowance when enforcing peak hour power cuts besides ignoring minor violations.

Smart Rooms 2009 Exhibition

Smart Rooms 2009, an exhibition of decoration materials for kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, is organised at Padmavathi Ammal Cultural Centre on Avanashi Road from August 7 to 10. According to a release from the organisers, Interface Trade Fair Private Limited, this will be the 17th edition of Smart Rooms. With people opting for new ideas to decorate each room in their homes, the decoration materials are gaining popularity.

The exhibition will focus on kitchen, bedroom and bathroom accessories, fittings and furniture, home linen, camping products, home appliances, kitchen cabinets, modern furniture, tiles, curtains, glass products and sanitary ware. With 90 stalls, the fair will showcase some of the best known brands and also imported products all under one roof. The exhibition will be inaugurated on Friday by N. Kannan, Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore District, the release adds.

Flowserve to expand Coimbatore operations

Flowserve, a global provider of pumps, valves, seals, automation and services to diverse operations in India by adding a new block to the existing two blocks in Coimbatore plant.

"We are looking to establish a third block inside the Coimbatore facility to expand our manufacturing capacity," Flowserve president and CEO Lewis M Kling told reporters here on Tuesday. He was in the city to honour the Coimbatore associates with spirit of Flowserve CEO Leadership Award. In April 2007, the US-based company established a fully owned engineering and industrial pump manufacturing facility at Othakkalmandapam, 22 kms from Coimbatore.

Built on 14.5 acres at an investment of US $ 8.5 million, the plant produce s pumps for the oil and gas, power and chemical industries. The new block, which is to come up on the vacant eight acres land inside the current facility, would produce bigger and more complex pumps to cater to the requirement of nuclear energy sector.

"We would manufacture boiler feed pumps and large wide-range pu mps that would be used in power sector," Mr Kling said. As India is opening up for nuclear power generation, Mr Kling envisaged a good demand for higher range pumps. He said the new block would be ready in 2 to 3 years, but declined to share details on investment saying, "it all depends on market conditions."

He said the company’s operations in India are catering to export and local markets. Currently, it exports 95% of valves and 30% of pumps manufactured in its wholly automated units in India. Mr Kling said Indian operations contributed susbtantially to the Flowserve group turnover of US $ 4.5 billion. "In the last six years, the Indian operations have shown an year-on-year growth of 35%," he said. Noting that India produces the best engineers and CEOs, he said, the company is on a hiring mode and would employ 100 engineers in the next few months.

"We are looking at recruiting students from universities in India," he added. Flowserve India operations president S Gopinath said, the Coimbatore facility can be expanded and there is space for even a fourth block. Though he doesn’t foresee any immediate need for pumps to cater to the nuclear power industry, he said, the req uirement from the oil and gas industry is on the rise in India.

KGISL to invest 600 Cr in SEZ !

Hi-Tech Infrastructure Private Limited, promoted by Coimbatore-based KG Information Systems Limited (KGISL), plans to invest around Rs 600 core over the next two years in building a township at a special economic zone (SEZ), the first SEZ for IT and ITeS sectors being developed at Saravanampally in Coimbatore.

Speaking to Business Standard, KGISL managing director, Ashok Bakthavathsalam, said the company was developing the SEZ on 150 acre, of which 65 acre had already been allotted to Robert Bosch India, Cognizant and Perot Systems. Bosch is setting up a research and development centre in the SEZ with an investment of around Rs 250 crore.

Bakthavathsalam said the SEZ was expected to attract investments to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore and generate employment to about 15,000 people over the next two years. “KGISL alone will invest around Rs 600 crore in the SEZ, which will be funded through a mix of internal accruals and debt,” he said.The company is planning to set up a budget hotel, 400 affordable houses and a hospital to supplement the upcoming industries in the SEZ, he said, adding that the company is open to join hands with private partners to promote the township.


“The SEZ will also help other industries to grow in this region. For instance, Robert Bosch facility will not only create additional job opportunities in Coimbatore, but will also benefit the manufacturing sector in and around Coimbatore as Robert Bosch is looking for partners to bring complimentary strengths to what it does,” Bakthavathsalam.

Coimbatore, he said, will be the right destination for IT and ITeS companies, which are currently passing through rough times. A business process outsourcing (BPO) company, which will operate out of Coimbatore, can save up to $200 per seat a month when compared to Delhi or other major metros.“Moreover, there are about 40 engineering colleges and 80 arts colleges, which are producing about 150,000 students every year. Availability of human resources is the biggest advantage.The establishment of the SEZ will also benefit the adjoining villages with the creation of non-IT jobs,” he said.

Govt keen to develop Tier II cities

A steep increase in exports by information technology and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) units located at Special Economic Zones (SEZs) enabled Tamil Nadu to register a 29 per cent growth in software exports to Rs 36,680 crore in the year 2008-09.The figures for the previous year were Rs 28,426 crore

In 2008-09, the SEZ IT and ITeS units alone contributed revenue of Rs 6,102 crore, which was nearly a 241-per cent increase over the corresponding year’s figure of Rs 1,787 crore, according to Mr J. Parthasarathy, Director, Software Technology Parks of India (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry).


Software exports from Puducherry registered a 23-per cent growth to Rs 79 crore (Rs 64 crore). The IT and ITeS SEZs brought in an investment of Rs 3,063 crore during the fiscal. As of March end, 19 IT and ITES SEZs are operational in the State, and of these, 18 are in Chennai, he told newspersons.The IT and ITeS industry employed around 2.85 lakh (2.44 lakh) people in the State. The IT and ITeS units in the SEZ alone employed 45,481 people, he said.


Hardware exports in 2008-09 increased by Rs 1 crore to Rs 263 crore. There are 18 registered units at present in the State. Of these, three units were started during the year, he said.The Tamil Nadu IT secretary, Mr P. W. C. Dawidar, said the State was committed to expanding IT infrastructure in Tier II cities of Madurai, Tiruchi and Tirunelveli. This year, we are moving very quickly in creating the infrastructure,” he said.

The construction of Tidel Park at Coimbatore (the second in the State after the one in Chennai) should be completed by the year-end.The park has an area of 2,00,000 sq ft on each floor and a total built-up area of 1.8 million sq ft.

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.

Focus Will Be On Road Repairs - Corp

With elections over, the Corporation may focus on repairing roads before the onset of monsoon. With elections holding up works and the forecast of early monsoon this time, the Corporation has very little time to identify roads that are in a bad condition and carry out repairs. Sources in the Corporation, however, say that there are no major problems with the city roads as the civic body had improved the condition of most of them before the elections.

Complaints may largely be on potholes and these can be set right quickly, they say. Potholes are the major problems on roads and these may worsen with the rain. In some areas, roads dug for laying pipes or cables are a problem. The pits had been filled with mud in some areas. With the mud filling off because of heavy traffic, the pits are turning driving risky on some stretches. Three such cases are on East Periasamy Road and the Shanmugham Road-Cowley Brown Road junction at R.S. Puram. Vehicles hit the potholes if the lighting on the road is poor. A huge pothole stares menacingly at two-wheeler riders on Masakalipalayam Road.

The sources in the civic body say the potholes can be filled with concrete mix so that it does not wear off during rain. As for bigger works, the Corporation may resume the one on Sukrawarpet. The works did not take off because of the Model Code of Conduct during the elections. Apart from this, there are not many roads that are in dire need of repairs before the rain, the sources contend. In some places, roads need to be re-laid at points where drainage repairs had been carried out. The earth dug out has been spread unevenly, causing inconvenience to vehicle users.

Residents protest against ST Plant !

Residents of some colonies along Nanjundapuram Road in the city have planned a fast and demonstration in the city on May 5 to oppose the sewage treatment plant that the Coimbatore Corporation is establishing on 6.2 acres it owns. The Corporation already has a sewage pumping station on this site.Alleging health hazards already from the pumping station, they say that the treatment plant will be too close to the residential buildings and could therefore cause serious health problems. They want it shifted to another site belonging to the Corporation.

The Corporation allays the fears of the residents by saying that state-of-the-art technology will be used to prevent pollution.The residents’ Nanjundapuram Welfare Association has moved the High Court against the project. The court recently passed an interim order that further work could be continued after getting due clearance from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.

The order was based on the undertaking the Corporation gave to the court that works would resume only after getting the “consent to establish” (the plant) from the board. Association president N.M. Venkatesan and resident D.H. Malani told presspersons recently that the treatment plant structures were only 20 feet from the compound of a residential building. There were other houses also nearby, they said. “We had given four to five petitions to the Corporation, but there was no response,” Mr. Malani said.Citing rules, the association said sewage treatment facilities should be located more than 1500 ft from human habitation. It also said the residents might stage a demonstration and even boycott the elections if no solution was assured.

Reacting to this, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra said the residents came to this area only after the pumping station was established. He said prior permission was required only in the case of a new sewage processing facility. With a pumping station already in place on this site, the Corporation had to apply to the pollution control board only for the consent to establish the plant.There was a delay in getting the consent as the Corporation had to re-submit its application in a new format. The Commissioner said the pollution control board officials too had inspected the site.

The needs of KOVAI !!

The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore and more than 100 other organisation have compiled a list of 10 major infrastructure requirements for Coimbatore and have presented it before the candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections from here.

Titled “Vision Kovai-Mission 10”, the organisations have put on top of the list the need for ring roads, link roads, flyovers and subways to rid the existing roads of congestion.

The organisations have called for speedy implementation of the project for an outer ring road that should begin at the Avanashi Road-Nilambur Bypass Road junction.As per the project, it will connect Sathyamangalam Road and Mettupalayam Road (at Perianaickenpalayam).

Another ring road should be laid to connect the bypass road from Nilambur with Palakkad Road, covering Thudialur and the western periphery of the city.

Widening of Avanashi Road, Dr. Nanjappa Road, Kamaraj Road and Thadagam Road are the other demands. Exclusive bi-cycle tracks are needed on all roads.

The wish list, described as “People’s Manifesto”, demands six-laning of all National and State Highways roads that pass through the city to Pollachi, Tirupur, Mettupalayam, Sathyamangalam and Palakkad.Four lanes must be provided on the roads leading to Perur and Marudamalai.

The Coimbatore region uses the Thoothukudi sea port extensively. Therefore, better road links from here to the port should be established.The list also calls for the completion of the Salem-Walayar section of the Golden Quadrilateral highway link project of the Central Government.

Demand

RAAC’s prominent demand for 12 link roads to decongest the existing main roads figures in the mainfesto.

Road over bridges are needed on Avarampalayam Road, on Pollachi Road at Kurichi, on 7th Street Extension at Rathinapuri, Vilankurichi Road, SIHS Colony Road, Thairetteri Road, near Kikani School and near Peelamedu railway station.

Bus terminals at Thudialur, Kurumbapalayam and Kovilpalayam on Sathyamangalam Road and Chinniampalayam and truck terminals at Narasimhanaickenpalayam on Mettupalayam Road, on Palakkad Road, at Nilambur, Malumichampatti, Kovilpalayam (on Sathyamangalam) are some of the other infrastructure demanded by the people’s manifesto.

The manifesto demands subways at 21 places in the city.

These include Dr. Nanjappa Road-Cross Cut Road junction, Hope College, near Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, Ukkadam Bus Stand, Big Bazaar Street-Oppanakara Street junction, Bank Road (railway junction road), Town Hall, Ramanathapuram-Nanjundapuram Road junction, Anna Statue junction on Avanashi Road, D.B. Road-T.V. Swamy Road junction and at Ganapathy.

The city needs multi-level parking facilities in 12 busy commercial areas such as Cross-Cut Road, at the Coimbatore Corporation shopping complex on Avanashi Road (near JM signal), Tyagi Kumaran Market on Raja Street, R.S. Puram, 100 Feet Road and near Ukkadam Fish Market.

Flyovers are needed at nine points such as Gandhipuram junction, Lakshmi Mills junction and three other spots on Avanashi Road, two on Tiruchi Road and another on Mettupalayam Road near Saibaba Colony. At an interface organised at the chamber of commerce, candidates of various parties also spoke on the need for these facilities in the city.

Construction industry seeks speedy approval mechanism

The Builders’ Association of India, Coimbatore Centre, has expressed concern over the delay in getting building plan approvals.It takes one to two years to get approval for a medium-size project (over 2,000 sq.ft). “The construction sector here will disappear if the time taken for approvals is so long,” says an office-bearer of the association.

Outgoing chairman of the association G. Srinivasan and the new chairman D.R. Sekar told presspersons here on Monday that Coimbatore had started losing opportunities as projects were moving out of the city fearing the delay.Four associations related to the construction sector assisted the Corporation for introduction of the Auto DCR system. In this system, plans were prepared using specially developed software and the building plan was submitted in a CD. The local body used the software to verify the plan. The objective was to reduce the time taken for approvals.

The Auto DCR should be extended to the Local Planning Authority and the Directorate of Town and Country Planning. The Auto DCR could also be upgraded to provide all related details to consumers at the click of the mouse. The Government should be pro-active in bringing about transparency in approvals. This would further reduce deviations and violations.There could be emergency projects such as extension of a hospital block or completion of classrooms in an educational institution before the beginning of the academic year. These projects were also getting hit with the delay in the approvals, they said.A nodal agency should be constituted for approvals and it should be within a time frame, Mr. Srinivasan said.

During the last one year, construction activities here were on a down turn and were expected revive by the end of the year. Industrial expansions had almost come to a standstill. Commercial construction had also declined. Only Government infrastructure works and individual residential works were on.Apart from starting the school of construction artisans at Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya here, the association had also tied up with a hospital to provide medical care to workers at a concessional rate.

With increasing awareness among the consumers and the builders, deviations were coming down, safety standards were improving in construction and the quality was also going up.

Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangham - No for Byepass !

The Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangham will convene a meeting at Raj Mahal in Chinnamathampalayam to decide on the further course of agitation to drop the proposed Neelambur – Mettuppalayam bypass road project.M.R. Sivasamy, State president of the Sangham told reporters on Wednesday that the Government made a move to establish a SIPCOT Industrial estate in Vellalore, Malumichampatti, Chettipalayam panchayats by acquiring 3,000 acres.

The farming community objected to the move and the district administration dropped the move to establish an industrial estate.Even SIPCOT officials accepted the decision. Now, industries, agriculture and educational institutions function there.

Now, the National Highways authority plans to acquire 5,000 acres of agriculture land and other lands affecting nearly 3,000 buildings for laying a bypass road from Neelambur to Mettuppalayam. The farming community had been opposing the project. Instead the existing Coimbatore – Mettuppalayam road should be widened to a four lane.In any project that involved land acquisition, the decision of the District Administration used to be accepted by the departments concerned.

Whereas, in Neelambur bypass road project, the National Highways was refusing to pay attention to the farmers as well as the district administration, Mr. Sivasamy said.

RAAC comes with " Vision Kovai Mission 10"

Fed up with unfulfilled promises from political parties, industry chambers, non-governmental organisations and residents associations in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore city have now given their ten point mission for Lok Sabha aspirants.One of the top 20 industrialised cities in the country and Tamil Nadu's second largest city has been neglected in terms of provision of basic necessities and development of infrastructure,' C.R. Swaminathan, president, Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) told reporters here Friday.

According to him, suggestions from people of Coimbatore received in response to newspaper advertisements were compiled as ten missions for implementation.'We don't want to nominate anybody as independent candidate in the forthcoming elections. We will give this to all the political parties as we feel implementation of infrastructure projects needs their support.'

The detailed agenda of the ten point mission include construction of a ring road and by-pass roads, setting up of Coimbatore Urban Development Authority and revising the master plan, housing for slum dwellers under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), improving healthcare, building an agri export complex, improving water bodies, tourism development and augmenting infrastructure facilities like power, railway lines and airports.

According to Swaminathan, the various projects listed in the Vision Kovai Mission 10 would involve an outlay of around Rs.10,000 crore (Rs.100 billion) excluding power projects, and can be completed in five years.Citing tax revenue of around Rs.3,500 crore (Rs.35 billion) paid by residents and organisations located in Coimbatore, he said the government can recover its investments on these projects in a short time through increased tax collections.

He said the associations are also mulling the idea of building a 1,000 MW thermal power station in Tuticorin to meet the needs of Coimbatore.

A MUST SEE VIDEO ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3lzEOlgyc0

ITC - Fortune park to set up Hotel @ Coimbatore !

ITC-Owned Fortune Park Hotels plans to open four new hotels in Mussoorie, Jaipur, Bangalore and Manipal by July, said a top company executive. The hospitality firm also announced that it is going to invest Rs 120-150 crore to build two hotels in Bangalore and Coimbatore.

“So far Fortune Park Hotel was a hotel management company and has expanded by tying up with various real estate developers. Now, we plans to invest and build two hotels under the brand,” said ITC-Hotel division senior executive vice-president Pawan Verma.

The company on Friday opened Fortune Inn Grazia at Noida. The mid-market brand currently has 26 operational hotels with plans to doubling it in the next two years in collaboration with real estate developers.The hotels will open under its existing Fortune sub-brands — Select, Park, Inn, Apartments, Faith, Spot, Stop, Lodge, Indoville and Adventure. Fortune Hotels president Suresh Kumar added that the company plans to have five new hotels in the NCR in addition to its existing two to cater to the upcoming Commonwealth Games next year.

“Despite the economic slowdown our occupancies on an average across all hotels are about 60% and we believe we have gained since many corporate travellers are downgrading,” he said. But Mr Kumar agreed that room rates at the company’s hotels have dropped 15-20% in the past few months. Nearly 70% of the revenues for the company comes from business travellers.