Eco awareness

Land acquisition problem

For them, customer is God

Chief Executive Officer of Mumbai Dabbawalas' Association Pawan G. Agrawal speaking at a session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Young Indians in Coimbatore on Friday.

“To a Mumbai dabbawala, the customer is not just the king but God,” said Pawan G. Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer of the Mumbai Dabbawalas' Association, here on Friday.

For more than an hour on Friday evening, industrialists, professionals and students in the packed hall of The Residency here were treated to an inspiring, thought-provoking and educative session on ethics in and commitment to work.

Mr. Agarwal made a presentation on “The Mumbai Dabbawalas” at a meeting organised by the Coimbatore Chapter of the Young Indians and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Mr. Agarwal dwelt on the 120-year-old service by the dabbawalas in Mumbai, who number about 5,000 now, their daily work routine, uninterrupted service in delivering two lakh tiffin boxes every day and the recognition that the service continues to receive.

The presentation concluded with the audience, numbering more than 200, appreciating the service of the dabbawalas with a standing ovation.

The service of the dabbawalas started in 1890 and a Charitable Trust was established in 1956. The average literacy level of a dabbawala is Class VIII and the average monthly income about Rs. 10,000.

A dabbawala works for eight to nine hours a day, travels nearly 70 km with tiffin boxes totally weighing about 60 kg. And, they have not gone on strike for a single day.

Their main modes of transport are the local trains and bicycles. They are not aided by technology to remember the address and phone numbers of their customers. And, amazingly, their error rate is one in 16 million transactions. They collect the tiffin boxes from the customers' residence, deliver it at the work place, and return the empty tiffin boxes at the customers' house.

A strong organisation structure, precise coding system for the tiffin boxes (which started with coloured threads and now consists of a series of alphabet and numbers), and adherence to a code of conduct are some of the highlights of this organised service.

The dabbawalas are punctual, disciplined, and committed to work. They value customer satisfaction, follow work ethics, and have a positive attitude. They do not smoke or consume alcohol during work hours and do not take leave without prior notice, he said.

The Mumbai Dabbawalas have received Six Sigma recognition and ISO 9001:2000 certification. Prince Charles and Richard Branson (Chairman of Virgin Atlantic) have visited them. And, their success has been presented at several international forums

From CBE forum

‘Mini' skyscrapers for Coimbatore

Though the real-estate market in Coimbatore is set to see nearly twice the number of apartment units entering the housing segment in the city next year, the industry remains unfazed about it causing any glut or demand stagnation. The residents of Coimbatore are also likely to see the skylines of the city being dotted with (mini) skyscrapers as almost 10-12 apartment projects of 8-14 floors in each block are likely to come up in the city next year which, however, is not likely to cause any easing of rates due to factors such as the need for more open spaces and increased construction cost.

Mr Rajesh B. Lund, Vice-President of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) and Managing Director of Srivari Property Developers, Coimbatore, said the Coimbatore market annually absorbed about 2,000-3,000 units of two- and three-bedroom apartments. His expectation was that next year, 4,000-6,000 units would come into the market with majority of them catering to the ‘mid-segment' with up to 1,500 sq.ft in area and consisting of two- and three-bedrooms. The rates could be between Rs 2,700/sq.ft and Rs 4,000/sq.ft depending on the location but excluding prized areas such as Race Course, R. S. Puram and Saibaba Colony where the land price is much higher and space is scarce.

Coimbatore already has apartment complexes of up to 8-10 floors. But they will become more pronounced, thanks to the changes in the Development Control Rules (DCR) a few months ago and would come up chiefly off the arterial Avinashi road, Tiruchi road, Sathyamangalam road and Mettupalayam road. Most of the apartment complexes here would have 8-12 floors. The number of units would depend on the extent of land but builders would require a large area for such projects as they would require more open areas.

Mr Lund said his company had two projects on the drawing board — one in Vilankurichi having 10 floors, off Avinashi road, and the other on the Mettupalayam road having 12 floors. Mr Lund said the new DCR, which came into force in June this year, has allowed the builders to go for higher floors subject to certain norms, such as road width being more than 60 ft. This would allow for more open space and ‘breathing space' and more recreation area for the residents. In Coimbatore, a large number of apartment complexes are of G+3 floor type that cover nearly 60 per cent of the plot area.

But he ruled out cost of apartments in such skyscrapers coming down — citing factors such as higher construction cost due to the need to lay a stronger foundation, cost of conveying material, labour cost and the longer duration of construction that pushes up the financial cost of projects etc, apart from increasing land cost. While there may not be any price reduction due to higher floors being allowed, the builders may tweak the size of the apartments so that the overall purchase cost could be affordable. There were good contractors in the city capable of executing such large projects but the city has not yet reached the level of building genuine skyscrapers of 20 to 30 floors as in Mumbai.

He estimated that the high-rises being planned here would have an average built-up area of 50,000 sq.ft to 2 lakh sq.ft each and their USP was they would provide a better quality of life as living space would be more and at higher floors one may not need air-conditioners.

As done in Mumbai, would he charge extra for each higher floor beyond a level in his forthcoming project? Mr Lund said, “ideally we would like to charge (as in Mumbai) but we will address it at the time of bookings.”

No correction likely

Mr V.Mohan, Managing Director, Mayflower Enterprises Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore, who is also planning to enter this high-rise segment, said a lot of such projects are under approval in the city and next year would see many of them being launched. But as there are not many roads that are 60 ft wide, the places where these could come up would be fewer. He said the large number of launches next year is not expected to have an unsettling impact on the realty market. Any realtor, including a market biggie from Bangalore planning to enter the city, will phase out their execution and “definitely correction will not happen” since compared with land price the apartments are ‘realistically priced' in Coimbatore.

Mr V.Subramanian, Executive Director, Ramani Realtors Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore, said the major advantage of Coimbatore was that even in prime areas such as R.S.Puram or Ram Nagar, flats could be bought for Rs 4,500-5,000 per sq.ft, a luxury not available in many other cities. What was of concern to the builders was the high cost of land. The demand was for flats in the Rs 35-Rs 50 lakh price band but as buyers in this segment are price-sensitive, developers have to tread cautiously.

From CBE forum

From CBE forum

Coimbatore hopes for more trains

With the Coimbatore North–Irugur second railway line commissioning expected any time, passengers in Coimbatore eagerly hope that the trains which at present skip Coimbatore Junction because of the single line bottleneck causing pathway congestion, will touch the city junction soon.

Coimbatore, with a burgeoning passenger traffic, continues to remain the second largest revenue spinner in Southern Railway next only to Chennai. However, neglect of the Coimbatore region continues, says S. Vaidyanathakrishnan of Coimbatore Railway Passengers Association. Mr. Vaidyanathakrishnan said though many requests had been sent to the railway authorities for new trains for the region or extension of trains from destinations in Kerala nothing had been done.

While many of the trains from Coimbatore were being extended to destinations in Kerala, citing space constraints for coach maintenance facilities here, Coimbatore, Coimbatore North or Podanur did not have these facilities despite land availability, he said.

Coimbatore passengers continued to struggle for confirmed tickets in trains bound for Thiruvananthapuram, Mangalore, Bangalore and even Chennai while there were no trains to Rameshwaram.

The migrant population had to bear the brunt of inadequate services to Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari. Overnight express trains to Bangalore, Tirupati (announced as Inter City express in the railway budget but yet to be operated) and a train to Thiruvananthapuram remained a dream, said

Mr. Vaidyanathakrishnan. Similarly, the request for a train from Mettupalayam to Goa via Mangalore connecting two tourist destinations had not been considered, said K. Kathirmathiyon of Coimbatore Consumer Cause.

Train to Rameshwaram could be run via Karur till the gauge conversion on the Coimbatore–Palani–Dindigul was over, Mr. Kathirmathiyon said. He said there were more than a dozen trains running via Podanur and Irugur and skipping Coimbatore.

The reason given by the railways was the pathway congestion because of the single line up to Irugur. After two decades, the Irugur–Coimbatore second line is all set to be commissioned. Nine trains skip Coimbatore Junction at present. When the second line becomes functional, passengers expect these trains to run via Coimbatore Junction. .

International level Bio-Park

World Ozone Day awareness programme launched

Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, along with Rural Industries and Animal Husbandry Minister Pongalur N. Palanisamy, on Thursday launched the World Ozone Day awareness programme organised by The Hindu in association with Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology by distributing copies of The Hindu newspaper along with programme handbills.

The theme of World Ozone Day this year was “Ozone Layer Protection: Governance and Compliance at their Best”. Mr. Stalin started the campaign by handing over copies of the newspaper with handbills to motorists. More than 200 students from Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology led by their Chairman S. Thangavelu and Secretary T. Dheepan along with the Regional General Manager of The Hindu, Coimbatore, D. Rajkumar, took part.

The objective of the event was to save the environment by generating awareness besides reflecting the social responsibility of the organisers.

Thousands of copies of the newspaper were distributed at the following traffic signals from 7.30 a.m. to 10 a.m. across the city: Airport Road Junction, Lakshmi Mills Junction, Ramanathapuram Junction, Ukkadam, Cross Cut Road Junction, Mettuppalayam Road near Sai Baba Temple, Singanallur junction, Bharathiar Road junction near Women's Polytechnic, Lawly Road Junction, TV Samy Road junction near R.S. Puram Head Post Office.

The pamphlets contained preventive measures to be undertaken to protect the Ozone Layer.

India's TNAU in global top 10 biotech list

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has been ranked sixth among the top 200 public biotech institutes in India by Biospectrum magazine.

The achievement was mae due to the services rendered by scientists, reseach scholars and students of Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, besides the financial support of different funding agencies especially the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, TNAU vice-chancellor, Dr Murugesa Bhoopathi said.

Biospectrum, a national biotech business monthly magazine, has conducted Nation-wide extensive survey covering 200 biotech institutes based on various parameters, including faculty, infrastructure

, industry-interaction and placement of students, Bhoopathi said.

Tree-top guest houses a hit with Kovai tourists

 All roads now lead to Kovai Courtallam as tourists get a different experience altogether enjoying nature from treetops amidst forest environment. Thanks to forest department’s eco-tourism initiative.Interestingly, Kovai Courtallam got a facelift at a time when developmental work was going on in full swing for the World Classical Tamil conference. And the forest department as part of a drive to attract tourists launched the ‘Treetop guest houses’.“This has received immense response from the tourists even from far off places as they are exposed to nature’s bounty in the forest surroundings,” District Forest Officer I Anwaruddin said. The project is aimed at making the people experience the forest environment thereby helping the department in its conservation exercise.Shedding more light on it, Anwaruddin said this innovative project is being implemented with the active participation of tribal population living in the vicinity. To be precise, the idea behind the eco-tourism project is to reduce tribals dependency on forest wealth.LCS Srikanth, Range Forest Officer, Social Forestry, who takes care of eco-tourism said that two houses on tree-tops besides two guest houses constructed at ground level is now turning as a tourist attraction as houses are booked well in advance.  He said the 10x10 sq.ft single room atop the tree-top with 6x5 sq.ft cot having an attached toilet is being offered at a charge of `2000 for 24 hours. And the guest houses have been provided with air-condition facility. Canteens are run by tribals near the tree-top houses for the convenience of the tourists. The guest houses are let on rent only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Anwaruddin said the entire proceeds from ‘Tree-top houses’ goes to the kitty of tribal welfare fund.

IT Park to be operational by next year

The Coimbatore Tidel Park that was inaugurated by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi here on August 2 is expected to become operational before next January.
Some companies have booked space at the park and a couple of large-scale companies are also expected to occupy space at the Tidel, according to an official here. The Government has reduced the rent from Rs. 30 a sq ft to Rs. 25 a sq ft and has also brought down the advance amount for rental to six months. The minimum area to be occupied by a company at the park is also flexible though the Government has fixed it at 5,000 sq ft, the official said.
The park is located in a 56-acre special economic zone and has a total built up area of 17 lakh sq ft.

From CBE forum

NTC to sell Minerva Mills land for Rs 50 cr

After garnering about Rs 2,000 crore from the sale of prime mill land in Mumbai, the National Textile Corporation (NTC) will put some of its property in Bangalore on the block in October.

The company would be selling 1.73 acres at the Minerva Mills in Bangalore through an e-auction.

"We have fixed up a reserve price of Rs 50 crore for Minerva Mill," NTC Chairman and Managing Director Ramachandran
Pillai said. The mill had become defunct.

The company is expecting double the amount of the reserve price, if not more from the auctions. The three-day process will start from October 25 in Indore, followed by the auction in Bangalore.

Last week, the company had invited tenders for the sale of land.

Recently, real estate major Indiabulls Infrastructure bagged NTC's 8.3 acres of Bharat Textile Mills land in Mumbai, for a whopping Rs 1,505 crore.

It also won the company's 2.3 acre Poddar Mills land for Rs 474 crore, paying almost double the reserve price of Rs 250 crore.

Industry experts said that the expected response for Indore and Bangalore lands would not be as high as the Mumbai auction as the financial capital typically commands higher rates. NTC would use the funds for modernisation and diversification.

"As part of this revival scheme, the company will set up one technical textile mills in Rajasthan and one in Coimbatore," Pillai said.

After the sale of Mumbai land, the company has revised its mop-up target for this fiscal by 60 per cent to Rs 8,000 crore.

The company has about 1,300 acre of surplus land in various states, such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Indore, Karnataka and Coimbatore.

Largest Ganesh idol in Asia at Mundhi Vinayakar Temple in Coimbatore

Devotees worshiped Asia’s largest statue of Lord Ganesh here on Saturday on the occasion of the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.
People thronged the city’s Mundhi Vinayakar Temple to worship the 10-foot-tall idol, which has been carved out of a single black stone, weighing 110 tons.
Samba Sivam, a devotee, said he was very happy to be present on the occasion to pray for world peace and prosperity.
Temple priest Karthikeyan said that Ganesh Chaturthi is an occasion when the worship of Lord Ganesh involves 16 different traditional rituals, 108 litres of milk, tender coconut, sandal powder, curd, clarified butter, cheese and turmeric.
The idol in the temple was also decorated with three tons of flowers.
“On this day, we pray to Lord Ganesh to eradicate terrorism from the world,” Karthikeyan said, recalling the ninth anniversary of the 9/11terror strike that claimed over 3000 lives in the United States

Residential Flats @ New Coimbatore

KGiSL PLATINA is promoted by the KGiSL Group. KGiSL Group’s first residential project is KGiSL METROPOLIS with 396 Apartments, was completely sold out during the first week of launch, a level unsurpassed in this part of the country.

KGISL PLATINA is at a walk able distance to world class IT companies like Cognizant Technology solutions, Robert Bosch, DELL, SPI Health care, Hirotech Engineering, Ugam Solutions, Madquist, Planet Online etc with a combined spending potential of 1500 crores by 25000 employees by 2015 . Can this be called “THE NEW COIMBATORE

From CBE forum

Coimbatore doctor wins best scientific abstract award

A city doctor has won the 'Best Scientific Abstract award for Laparoscopic Treatment of Cancer of Esophagus,' instituted by the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus (ISDE). The award carrying a citation and a cash prize of USD 500 was presented to Dr C Palanivelu, Director, GEM Hospital and Research Centre, at the 12th World Congress of Diseases of Esophagus held at Kagoshima, Japan, from Sept 2 to 5. The abstract has been selected for outstanding scientific merit, innovation and educational value and promotion for Diseases of the Esophagus, the citation signed by ISDE President Mark K Ferguson said. Talking to reporters today, Palanivelu said the technique, introduced in 2007, was published as a special article in the Journal of American Collge of surgeons and since then it had become "widely popular" and a standard technique across the globe.

From CBE forum

From Skyscrapercity Coimbatore Forum

Corpn. to re-lay 92 roads in city

The Coimbatore Corporation has identified 92 roads in the city for re-laying at over Rs.20 crore. A proposal for this was approved by the Corporation Council at its urgent meeting on Friday.

The proposal placed in the Council said that the Corporation was implementing an underground drainage scheme in many parts of the city under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Many roads were being dug to lay the drainage lines and these had to be re-laid to enable smooth flow of traffic. Besides these roads, there were others whose condition had deteriorated over the period of time and required re-laying. Some of these roads were in Ramnagar, Kothari Nagar, Meena Estate, Tatabad and Periyar Nagar.

The Corporation also sought approval from the Council to request the State Government for funds for the works under the Special Roads Scheme.

The Council also approved a proposal to pay Rs.24 lakh to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for a high tension power connection to the drinking water treatment plant being established at Velliyankadu under the Rs.113-crore Pilloor Phase II scheme.

The Corporation was keen on completing the scheme by March 31 and begin supply immediately in order to meet the rising demand for drinking water in the city.

The Council, however, deferred for further discussion a proposal to sell for non-drinking purposes treated waste water. The Corporation was establishing sewage treatment plants at Ukkadam, Nanjundapuram and Ondipudur as part of drainage scheme. The civic body planned to sell the treated waste water to private or public enterprises.

Manufacturing units should become integrated partners for global market

Indian manufacturing units should become integrated partners of global original equipment manufacturers, Subu D Subramanian, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Defiance Technologies, said here on Friday.

Speaking at the Global Manufacturing Cluster Vision 2020 organised by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association and TexasVentures, he said that technology was a catalyst to enhance manufacturing productivity. For the last two to three decades, technology and manufacturing had been going hand-in-hand. In the 21st century, technology went beyond enterprise and that drove the growth of the companies.

The market attractiveness and capability in the country would explode the size of opportunities. Overseas companies would want to design their products for the Indian consumers. Hence, the manufacturers should become integrated partners for global market and global original equipment manufacturers.

R. Nandini, Chairperson of Confederation of Indian Industry, Tamil Nadu chapter, said the manufacturing sector contributed to 15 per cent of the GDP and employed 58 million people. Sectors such as food processing, metal and electrical machinery were growing fast. The growth was driven primarily by domestic consumption. The Indian manufacturing sector was now globally competitive and participated in the global economy. Innovation and technology would boost competitiveness. The Government, industry and academia should collaborate for the Indian manufacturing sector to grow at 11 per cent annually for the next 15 years.

During the recent years, the manufacturing industry helped Tamil Nadu achieve 13.2 per cent GSDP. The state had attracted huge foreign direct investments. Export of value-added products had also gone up. Textiles, automobile and engineering were some of the sectors that were doing well. “New avenues of growth are seen now,” she said. “We should impart skill to our youth.” About four lakh students passed out of the colleges in the state every year and only 25 per cent of them were employable. 

Source-Hindu

Hope College? Here is the reason!

In 1945, Hope inaugurated a polytechnic college in Coimbatore which was later named "Arthur Hope Polytechnic" in his honor. The polytechnic was later upgraded to a college of science and technology and renamed Government College of Science and Technology in 1950. Though the college was renamed and moved to a new campus, the area where it was originally located is still being called as "Hope College".

^{Source-Wikipedia}

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TNSTC conductor's drive for green cover in Kovai

IEDC opened at Coimbatore

The Technology Business Incubation (T-TBI) of the Technopark here has opened its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (IEDC) at Coimbatore. The centre has been set up at Nehru Arts and Science College there.  Chief Finance Officer of Technopark K C Chandrasekharan Nair inaugurated the new centre recently at a function that was presided over by managing trustee of Nehru Group of Institutions P Krishna Das. According to a statement, T-TBI will be extending all sorts of support to the College for coordinating the effective conduct of the entrepreneurship development activities. The E-learning courses offered by T-TBI will be administered to the college students through the portal www.ttbi.smartguruji.com. T-TBI has many virtual incubation centres across Kerala and Bangalore. Chandrasekharan Nair, who inaugurated the centre, is also the Programme Coordinator-New Initiatives, at Technopark. Apart from Krishna Das, those who attended the inaugural function included Arun Balachandran, CEO, Innovation Lab- Kochi, who was the guest of honour and P Krishna Kumar, CEO & secretary, Nehru Group of Institutions, who offered felicitations. More than 90 percent of the students in the college are from Kerala. Chandrasekharan Nair said on the occasion that the major objective of forming the IEDC is to promote innovation and entrepreneurship on the campus by creating an encouraging ecosystem and a fertile ground to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship. T-TBI would be offering all essential support for the entrepreneurship development activities of the college, including faculty development programmes, conducting entrepreneurship awareness camps and organising workshops and seminars. Nehru Arts and Science College principal B Anirudhan and Dean-Academic Affairs K V Indulekha were also present.

Brookefields mall to become operational

Brookefields mall in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, will become operational in the third quarter of the current fiscal. The mall, being developed by Brookefields Estates Pvt Ltd, is spread over an area of 4.5 lakh sq.ft and houses a six-screen multiplex, department store, food court, fine dining restaurant, a gaming shop and over 80 shops.

“The state-of-the-art design of the mall and the product offerings from its various tenants will appeal to customers. We will take the mall experience to the next level,” says Balasubramanium, director, Brookefields Estates Pvt Ltd.

Though the mall will become fully operational in the third quarter of the current fiscal, it has an operational anchor store – RmKV – which offers trendy and unique silk sarees as well as family apparel. The store occupies the largest space (over 80,000 sq.ft) in the mall.

The other anchor stores that will become operational in the next few months include Pantaloons, Westside, Reliance Trendz, Lifestyle, Max and Adlabs which will cover more than three lakh sq.ft space in the Brookefields. The remaining mall area will be dedicated to vanilla stores such as Lee, Levi's, Hidesign, Travelon, Nike, Reebok, Louis Philippe, Van Huesen, Metro Shoes, Wrangler, Allen Solly, Peter England, Crocodile and Blackberry, among many others.

Odyssey is going to open a 12,000-sq.ft store in the mall in October this year, confirms TS Ashwin, managing director, Odyssey India Ltd.

Big Cinemas will also be operational soon with six screens and a seating capacity of 1,500.

There will also be fun unlimited with Funcity, one of the leading family entertainment centres, and more than 20 counters, including an exclusive KFC counter, at the food court. There will also be a fine dining area.

IndiaRetailing Bureau

INTEC 2010

Corporation opens a number of parks

Over the last two days (Wednesday and Thursday), the Coimbatore Corporation opened nearly 30 parks across the city. These were among the 40 created over a total space of 18 acres in various wards of the Corporation in the run-up to the World Classical Tamil Conference that was held in the city from June 23 to 27.

The Corporation already has 46 parks created on reserved sites.

Forty more public purpose sites marked for parks have been turned into green spaces.

The Corporation says that more parks will be established on such sites allocated for this purpose.

The parks opened on Wednesday and Thursday have been established at more than Rs. 3.5 crore.

The Corporation clarified at a Council meeting sometime ago that the opening of the parks was delayed because of some small works that were to be completed. This was in response to charges by some councillors that the civic body was waiting for a prominent person to open the parks.

Officials said the parks could be opened with the councillors of the respective wards soon after the works were completed.

The parks were opened by Rural Industries Minister Pongalur N. Palanisamy on Wednesday, in the presence of Mayor R. Venkatachalam, Commissioner Anshul Mishra and Deputy Mayor N. Karthik.

Apart from enough greenery, the parks have been provided with a walkers' path. The Coimbatore Corporation has also formed a Horticulture Wing to oversee the maintenance of the parks, apart from the roadside parks and traffic islands.

While the physical maintenance of the green spaces is to be outsourced, the wing will plan landscapes and lend expertise in designing.

INTEC 2010

 The much - awaited trade fair INTEC 2010. This International Industrial Trade Fair brought to you by CODISSIA - The Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, brings together the very best in technological advancement. INTEC is a congregation of various Industries exhibiting their finest innovations and services.
Link- INTEC

From Skyscrapercity Coimbatore Forum

From Skyscrapercity Coimbatore Forum