Expressway, short flyovers to decongest Coimbatore roads

WILL THIS EASE?: Expressways and flyovers are planned by the Coimbatore Corporation as a solution to traffic congestion such as this one on Avanashi Road. — Photo: K. Ananthan

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation is working on various options to decongest the city's main roads. Two major options being considered are expressways and short flyovers. The aim is to not only provide separate facilities for vehicles travelling short and long distances but also to eliminate delay at traffic signals.

In the backdrop of an earlier plan to widen Avanashi Road, the Corporation plans an expressway for vehicles bound for the airport, outskirts such as Kalapati and Chinniampalayam and also to Avanashi, Tirupur and Erode.

Delay at the signals in the city and time constraints leads to speeding and high accident rates on Avanashi Road. But, the Corporation feels that the expressway alone will not be sufficient.

Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran indicates that short flyovers may also be built to eliminate delay at signals and the resultant speeding.

If these projects are implemented, Avanashi Road may have a three-tier traffic system - the existing road, the expressway and the short flyovers. For instance, a short flyover (over the express way or below it) at the Lakshmi Mills Junction may help avoid holding up traffic for long at the signal.

Corporation sources say that the need for short flyovers is felt at the 100 Feet Road-Sathyamangalam Road Junction and at Dr. Nanjappa Road-Cross Cut Road-Bharathiar Road Junction.

With most of the junctions in the core city area becoming congested and witnessing frequent traffic snarls, the Corporation feels that flyovers may be the only way out.

The signal at the Avanashi Road-Headquarters Road Junction, popularly known as JM Signal or Uppilipalayam, is another chaotic traffic point. Traffic crawls towards the flyover at morning and evening. The expressway has been planned from the flyover itself. If built, a large number of long distance vehicles will not choke that point.

The City Development Plan (CDP) of the Corporation lists the following places as those identified for flyovers: Tiruchi Road-Nanjundapuram Road Junction, Singanallur Junction, Lakshmi Mills Junction, Gandhipuram Bus Stand, G.P. Hospital, Sowripalayam Junction, Nirmala College Junction at Sungam, Ukkadam, Thadagam Road-Marudamalai Road Junction and Dr. Nanjappa Road-Avanashi Road Junction.

The CDP has been prepared as part of the infrastructure improvement efforts under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The Corporation continues to study the requirements of the city in terms of traffic management. He says elevated highways and flyovers have ensured smooth flow of traffic in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Land getting ready for the proposed IT park in Coimbatore

Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) is on the lookout for more land in Coimbatore to promote information technology sector here.

According to its Managing Director, C. Umashankar, the Corporation is ready to acquire even 1,000 to 2,000 acres "since there is so much demand for Coimbatore". But the land should be suitable for IT firms.

The proposal for transfer of 27 acres, which is adjacent to the proposed IT park site (29 acres) on Avinashi Road near the Coimbatore Medical College, from the health department to ELCOT is at an "advanced stage", he says. The land that the Corporation is looking out for is in addition to these sites.

TIDEL park

Meanwhile, on the proposed TIDEL park here, he says sites would be handed over to the respective companies in a couple of weeks.

The cleaning up works began on Thursday. ELCOT has appointed an architect to make a layout scientifically, since the park will have facilities such as Customs House. After clearing the site, works will start immediately to lay the approach road, which will be about one km.

The Corporation is on the lookout for large areas since the new projects will be on the "campus model," with facilities such as dwelling units, hospital and school within the campus.

The campus model will provide for the essential needs of the employees in the same area. It will be a self-contained development.

Silk Air to fly Coimbatore,Tiruchi

Flight to Singapore
[ 29 Nov, 2006 0001hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

Singapore International Airlines (SIA) launched its sixth flight, a Tuesday service, to Bangalore, increasing the weekly seat capacity to 1,816 seats. The sixth flight will see a 20 per cent increase on seat capacity.

Singapore Airlines general manager (India) Foo Chai Woo said the airline hopes to make Bangalore a daily destination soon and hoped the next bilateral talks between Singapore and India would grant the airline the requisite permission.

SIA has offered a cool Rs 6,666 plus taxes return fare for the Tuesday flight as an introductory offer and the tickets have to be booked before December 2. Those booked on this fare can fly from November 28 to January 31. This is against a normal fare of Rs 20,000 plus taxes. Similarly, a fare of Rs 7,777 on the Bangalore-Kuala Lumpur sector and Rs 8,888 on the Bangalore-Bangkok sector has been offered.

Soon, the airline's subsidiary, Silk Air, which operates to Tiruvanthapuram and Kochi, is looking at starting services in cities like Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Nagpur among other places.

Helios & Matheson in expansion gear

With acquisitions and mergers as the quickest way to expand globally nowadays, it is not surprising that Chennai-based Helios and Matheson Information Technology Ltd., a healthcare focused IT firm, is planning to consolidate its earlier acquisition of a listed US company, The A Consulting Team (TACT), and embark on fresh ones.“Three hot prospects worth US$ 50-100 million are on the anvil; all of them reputed and listed American companies in healthcare verticals. Acquisition of one of the three is expected by March 2007,” V Ramachandiran, chairman told this website’s newspaper.Ramachandiran said integration of an acquired company takes eight quarters and the company expects to integrate US$ four million of the US$ 27 million TACT top-line by March 2007. Explaining the advantages of acquisition for foreign companies, Ramachandiran said, “These companies are not familiar with India, so operating individually in the country would be a problem for them. Moreover, cost of services is 50 percent higher in Europe and America compared to that in India.” For an Indian company, a foreign acquisition brings a basket of reputed clients to its fold, results in improved profitability and brings down operating costs further.With the new acquisition, Helios & Matheson expects to improve its turnover to Rs 394 crore (Rs 221.36 crore) and PAT to Rs 55 crore (Rs 38.14 crore) in FY07, a growth of 78 percent over the previous year. “Over the last two quarters we have been witnessing a phenomenal growth in healthcare IT (HIT) investment by our clients in the life sciences, healthcare insurance, and health maintenance organisations,” said vice president, Divya Ramachandran.“Gartner too has identified HIT as one of the six key IT trends that are expected to have a significant impact on the IT industry. Gartner analysts have predicted that by 2009, healthcare investments in IT would increase by more than 50 percent which could enable clinicians to reduce the level of preventable deaths by 50 percent by 2013.”Meanwhile, the company is adding between two and four clients every quarter to its customer list. It is planning to set up an offshore development centre in Coimbatore by the middle of next year. The company is looking at a 20-acre piece of land on which a 500-seater facility will be set up with the number to be scaled up to 3,000 employees, largely engineers, over the next three years.Starting with a builtup area of around 50,000 sq. feet, the area will be increased to three lakh sq. ft. over the same period at an investment of Rs 30 crore, to be funded from internal accruals.“It will be a generic facility. Coimbatore is well-connected with 20,000 engineering students passing out per annum, which makes it an ideal location,” added Ramachandiran. The company is also ramping up its KPO facility in Bangalore where image analysis and data interpretation are undertaken. The headcount of doctors will be increased from 40 to 80 over the next 12 months.

Kingfisher launches new flight services from Coimbatore

Kingfisher Airlines has launched 58 new flight services across 15 new routes connecting nine important cities. The new services include flights to Jammu, Pune and Ahmedabad from Coimbatore.
According to a release from Vijay Mallaya, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kingfisher, here on Friday, the new services are from Varanasi, Pune, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Jammu and Hyderabad. The launch of new routes takes the number of daily flights operated by Kingfisher Airlines to 130, connecting 23 destinations. Kingfisher has three new Airbus A321 aircraft in its fleet and the fourth is set to join later this week. With the acquisition of four A321 aircraft and one ATR72-500, the fleet size has gone up to 22.
From Coimbatore
The services launched from Coimbatore and their schedules are as follows: The Ahmedabad-Coimbatore flight will take off at 18.05 hours and arrive Coimbatore at 20.15 hours. In the return direction, it will take off from Coimbatore at 10.00 hours and arrive Ahmedabad at 12.10 hours.
The Bangalore-Coimbatore flight will take off at 08.30 hours and arrive Coimbatore at 09.10 hours and leave Coimbatore at 20.45 hours to reach Bangalore at 21.45 hours.
The Coimbatore-Jammu flight will take off at 10.00 hours to reach Jammu at 15.00 hours. It will take off from Jammu at 15.30 hours to reach Coimbatore at 20.15 hours. The Coimbatore-Pune flight will take off from Coimbatore at 20.45 hours and reach Pune at 23.20 hours. It will take off from Pune at 06.30 hours to reach Coimbatore at 09.10 hours.

Big Bazaar opens shop in Coimbatore

Big Bazaar, the value retailing store of Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd and a part of the Future Group, has made its entry into Tamil Nadu by setting up its first store in the State at Coimbatore.
The Group is planning its next store at Chennai before the close of this calendar year, before gaining footprint into other happening towns such as Salem and Trichy.
Addressing presspersons after inaugurating a 50,000-sq-ft store at Oppanakara Street in the heart of the city, its Business Manager, Mr Venkateshwar Kumar, said there would be special offers and discounts on the 1.60 lakh products available off the shelf all through the year.
Stores Investment
The multi-level store now offers 43,000 sq ft shopping area. "We have set aside another 10,000 sq ft for entertainment and food court. This would come up on the fourth floor and is expected to be ready within the next two months." The Group has, since setting up its first shop in Bangalore five years back, opened eight malls of which six have been set up in Karnataka and two in Andhra Pradesh. The ninth Big Bazaar outlet has come up in Coimbatore. The investment on each of these stores ranged between Rs 12 crore and Rs 15 crore, he said.
The company has stores in 30 cities across the country. The company is planning to open a store in Palakad in neighbouring Kerala next month. "We have identified places like Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kasargud for setting up the store. At least three more outlets would come up in Kerala by January next," he said.
More Stores
The company is planning to open at least 15 Big Bazaar stores in the South over the next one year. According to Mr Kumar, the food court, entertainment zone and health care beauty saloon were exclusive to Coimbatore. When asked about the possibility of opening a second store in Coimbatore, he said "it can happen, not immediately though."
Answering a query, he said all Big Bazaar stores had come up only in rented/leased premises. "We have never looked at acquiring the building or developing the property on our own land. We are focused on addressing the home maker's endeavour of optimal saving while giving the shopping convenience by serving quality products at unbelievable rates."
On location of the store, he said the company's study revealed that a majority visited the bazaar area in the city to pick their requirements at the cheapest rate. "So we decided to locate our store here and give a stiff fight (on pricing and quality) to the vendors in this area."
The numbers
On business growth, Mr Kumar said the company registered a turnover of Rs 250 crore during the last year from 4 outlets. "We are hoping to cross the Rs 1,000-crore mark this year from about 15 outlets. We are expecting the turnover from this outlet to touch Rs 50 crore in the next 12 months."
The company is sourcing most of the items from local vendors. "The procurement is not centralised," he said.

Suzlon to set up 2nd facility in Coimbatore, TN

Suzlon Energy is planning to set up an energy engineering facility over a 250-acre plot about 20 km west of Coimbatore. This will be the largest corporate facility of its kind so far in the southern city of Tamil Nadu, reports Business Standard. So far, the Pune-headquartered wind energy major has had a foundry unit operating from Coimbatore. The upcoming expansion will help it widen its manufacturing footprint in south India. Suzlon, which had already completed the purchase of the required land, was in `advanced stages` of talks with the Tamil Nadu government. The company had submitted documents pertaining to the land purchase procedures of the facility. Following the physical inspection and approval by state and local authorities, the commerce ministry was expected to give its final go-ahead by mid-December. And then, Suzlon was expected to start construction work on the facility by January next year. Moreover, the project, which will come up along the L&T bypass road that links Palladam taluk with Tirupur, was given the initial go-ahead by the commerce ministry on October 6 with full benefits accorded to it under the SEZ Act of 2004. Suzlon, one of the world`s leading wind energy turbine producers, shares more than half of the domestic wind turbines market.

Kovai poised to become a retail hub

If the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) rates India as number one country for opportunities in retail growth, down South, cities like Coimbatore are witnessing a flurry of activities in this sector.

Quite impressed by the kind of growth that is happening in Coimbatore, Gibson G Vedamani, CEO of Retailers Association of India, Mumbai, who was in the city recently, predicted that Coimbatore was poised to become a retail hub, next to Chennai in the next three years.

He did not forget to recall that Sri Krishna Sweets had branched out from Coimbatore several decades ago. Big names in textile business like the Chennai Silks are also here.

With more shopping malls and multiplexes coming up in the city, K Srinivasan, Assistant Professor, Jansons School of Business, said that high-end shopping was catching up in the textile city.

“We now have Krishna Collections on DB Road, Vibe on Race Course Road, Adlabs of Reliance group is coming up, besides many multiplexes, helped by the emerging consumerism. The cosmopolitan psyche is getting rooted here,” he added.

He also noted how book-retailing was also coming up in a big way with Odyssey already having opened one outlet and likely to open another, while Crossword and Landmark were set to open shops. The current growth is supplemented by the upbeat trend in other sectors like realty sector, and of course, Information Technology (IT).

“The relaxation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms in realty sector has facilitated a flow of investment, thereby providing retailers a good space,” remarked Gibson.

If modern retail industry has given customers a good shopping experience and thrown open plenty of employment opportunities, the buoyant economy, as its contribution, has increased the purchasing power of the people.

Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Coimbatore Zone, Jayakumar Ramdass, also echoed the same sentiment. “The purchasing power of the people has gone up manifold and the retail sector is poised for a big growth in Coimbatore.”

Besides the customers here, retail outlets in Coimbatore are witnessing regular shoppers from neighbouring States like Karnataka and Kerala.

P D Francis, Manager of Alukkas, said its Coimbatore branch is doing well, with more customers opting for high-end products.

However, Jayakumar Ramadass stated that there remained a lot of scope for Coimbatore to grow in several other areas of the retail sector like household materials. “The rural economy is much bigger,” he opined.

Bosch launches Coimbatore facility

Germany-based Bosch will invest euro 325 million (Rs 1,800 crore) in India over three years.

The company is expecting 25% revenue from the Asia-Pacific region by 2015, and India is expected to contribute a major share of the total sales, currently at euro 730 million (Rs 4,000 crore), Franz Fehrenbach,chairman of Robert Bosch GmbH, said today.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Coimbatore facility of Robert Bosch India, Fehrenbach said the company is investing euro 325 million, amounting to 7.4% of total sales, for R&D and would continue to invest on research on a consistent basis.

Friedhelm Pickhard, managing director of Robert Bosch India, said the Coimbatore facility would handle services in automotive applications, industrial automation, mechanical engineering and shared services.

Passport offices in Madurai, Coimbatore

Passport offices are likely to be opened in Madurai and Coimbatore by the first quarter of next year.

An indication to this was given by the Union Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahamed, in a communication to the Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran, said a press release from the latter's office.

Air Deccan to connect Ahmedabad and Coimbatore via Bangalore

India's first low cost flier, Air Deccan today announced daily flights between Ahmedabad and Coimbatore via Bangalore, effective November two.

A 180 seater A 320 aircraft would be deployed in the route, An Air Deccan release said here today.

Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu enjoy a long history of being the most important centres of Indian textile and engineering industries. The two cities were also traditional hubs of trade and commerce, besides being home to several educational institutions of higher learning. Both Ahmedabad and Coimbatore were already well connected on the Air Deccan network.

Ahmedabad airport recently got its first ever aircraft base set up by Air Deccan and was connected to Chennai and Hyderabad. The airliner connects Coimbatore to Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai with daily flights.

With the launch of the Ahmedabad-Coimbatore service, Air Deccan became the only airline providing daily connectivity between the two cities.

Flight DN 741 will leave Ahmedabad at 1530 hrs, reach Bangalore at 1730 hrs, leave Bangalore for Coimbatore at 1800 hrs and land at Coimbatore at 1830 hrs. In the reverse direction it will leave Coimbatore at 1900 hrs, arrive in Bangalore at 1930 hrs and depart for Ahmedabad at 2000 hrs and land at Ahmedabad at 2200 hrs.

The Schedule was subject to approval by relevant government authorities, the release said.

Air Deccan Chief Operating Officer Warrick Brady said in the release that the low cost flier was the first to identify the relevance of affordable air connectivity between growing cities in India and provide inter regional connectivity at unmatched low fares.

The choc a bloc load factor of over 85 per cent on an average, on all Air Deccan flights from Ahmedabad and from Coimbatore had prompted it to launch a daily flight connecting Ahmedabad and Coimbatore in a single journey.

He said ''as part of our constant endeavor to provide the lowest possible fares to our passengers, we are offering inaugural fares on the Ahmedabad-Bangalore-Coimbatore flight at Rs.1974/- (plus taxes). Moreover as part of our Destination No.1 campaign, we are offering tickets at Rs Six (plus taxes) on the Bangalore-Coimbatore sector. Ahmedabad and Coimbatore were not even connected on a single rail network taking up more than two days of journey time. This new service along with the lowest possible fares would indeed provide a convenient travel option to thousands of people planning a trip between the two cities''.

KCT setting up another Rs 35-cr IT park

Construction contract awarded; project likely to be completed by March

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`We already have applications from six companies of which two are from Japan.'

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Coimbatore , Oct. 2

Kumaraguru College of Technology (KCT) is in the process of setting up another IT park within its campus in an area of 2.3 lakh sq. ft.

The work on this estimated Rs 35-crore project is expected to commence in the first week of October. "Construction contract has been awarded and we expect the project to be complete by March next," its Joint Correspondent, Dr A. Selva Kumar, told Business Line.

Its first project, which houses IT giants such as Cognizant and Spheris was established in 2005 in a built-up space of 3 lakh sq. ft.

Space set aside

Dr Selva Kumar recalled that the space was then set aside for some start-up IT companies, which could use the facility as an incubator. "But the STPI Director, Ms Rajalakshmi, drew the attention of renowned IT players and Cognizant had no second thoughts about taking up 40,000 sq ft. Spheris came in later, but Cognizant has expanded its presence by taking up another 35,000 sq. ft three months back."

Considering Cognizant's request for additional space and the demand from other IT companies has driven KCT to allocate more space, and this time for establishing an IT park — a plug and play model. "We already have the application from six companies of which two are from Japan. Our preference would be to lease out the space to IT companies because of the park's proximity to the engineering college," he said.

Beneficial to students

Dr Selva Kumar pointed out that lot of students were benefited by the location because they got to do projects in these companies and the executive programmes could also be conducted within the campus.

"Connectivity is no issue as the STPI earth station is located close by and 6 ISPs have fibre terminations here," he said.

The 150-acre KCT campus is now using just 50 per cent of the area. "We still have another 70 acres. Future expansion possibilities are bright," was all he said when asked if the management would look at allocating that space for promotion of IT parks

Courtesy : The business line

Bharathiar varsity techno park

Bharathiar University (BU) is planning to tie-up with the State Government for establishing the BU-Elcot R&D Techno Park city within its campus.

Dr G. Thiruvasagam, Vice-Chancellor, BU, has within a month of assuming charge, set the project, which was put in the backburner for over a decade, in motion. "We have just started the ground levelling work in about 25 acres of the 109 acres earmarked for this project. We would like to moot this project jointly with the Government of Tamil Nadu. We are in talks," Dr Thiruvasagam told Business Line. The total project cost has been estimated at Rs 12 crore.

Elcot officials have undertaken a survey of the proposed site. The Vice-Chancellor, clarified that the building structure would have to be put up by the companies taking the land, while the promoters ensure to provide the basic amenities.

Courtesy : The business line

Singapore, Coimbatore air link planned

COIMBATORE: SILK Air is considering direct air connectivity between Coimbatore and Singapore, said Balaji Sadasivam, Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Information, Communication and Arts.

He was addressing the members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Coimbatore, at a meeting held here on Monday.

According to a CII release, Mr. Sadasivam said there was a quantum jump during the last two years in not only business travellers between Singapore and this region but also "leisure travellers." Hence SILK Air was considering direct air connectivity between Coimbatore and Singapore and this was awaiting Central Government's approval.

"Singapore and Coimbatore can complement each other in the field of healthcare, education and engineering design."

A hub

Though Singapore might not be cost competitive to set up a manufacturing unit, Coimbatore could make use of its advancements in textile and engineering design and make Singapore a hub to reach out faster to the South East Asian countries and the Western parts of the U.S., he said.

Further, Singapore was looking at creating special economic zones in India, he added.

Bilateral trade

The Chairman of the CII, Coimbatore Zone, Jayakumar Ramdass, said bilateral trade and investment links between Singapore and India had seen a dramatic growth in recent years.

Various multinational companies were routing their investments in India through their Singapore subsidiaries. Companies from Singapore had invested in various projects in India such as logistics, health services, electronics and software.

Top five sectors

The top five sectors that attracted Foreign Direct Investment from Singapore included telecommunications, services (financial and non-financial), electrical equipment (including computer software and electronics), fuel and transportation industries.

India's trade with Singapore grew three times in the last five years and this was contributed by surge in exports and imports from and to Singapore, the release said

Courtesy : The Hindu

27 more acres identified for IT companies in Coimbatore

27 more acres identified for IT companies in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: With the demand for IT space increasing in Coimbatore, the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu has identified 27 more acres for the IT and IT Enabled Services sector.

The ELCOT already has 29.4 acres near the Coimbatore Medical College with Special Economic Zone status, and is expected to allocate 15 acres to two IT majors. The ELCOT will develop an IT park, similar to the TIDEL Park in Chennai, on another 10 acres. Discussions are under way.

With more IT companies looking out for space here, the ELCOT has identified 27 acres more of Coimbatore Medical College land, contiguous to the site it already has. ELCOT Managing Director C. Umashankar, who was here on Friday to inspect the land, said: "A report will be submitted to the State Government next week."

"There is good demand for IT space in Coimbatore." If the State Government approved the additional land identified, the ELCOT would request the Centre to bring the additional land too under the Special Economic Zone, he said.

Work on the common facilities, such as access road to the land, would start soon, he said.

Jayakumar Ramdass, chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry, Coimbatore Zone, said the ELCOT should soon bring up the IT park it planned for the benefit of smaller companies. "An IT park should have a cluster of small and medium ... companies." Further, since there was more demand from the IT companies for space, the ELCOT should acquire additional land to cater to the needs of all the companies. He also stressed the need for adequate infrastructure in and around the park.

Courtesy : The Hindu