The KochiNow Blog

CIAL and adjoining areas are witnessing a flurry of construction activity.Going by the huge swing in the property market in the area, the development around the airport is going to completely change the surroundings. It has already changed the face of the place



Google Earth image of the aerotropolis built around the Hong Kong International Airport

A picture of the COCHIN AEROTROPOLIS Region from Google Earth

An artists sketch of how an AEROTROPOLIS looks like.




Aerotropolises throughout the globe in various phases of development

Dr. John Kasardas architectural drawing of an AEROTROPOLIS

A picture of an already existing AEROTROPOLIS

CIAL which is planning to tap the equity market with IPO’s next year need to form a Joint Venture, Subsidiary or Special Purpose Vehicle to execute its proposed AEROTROPOLISThe SPV should be called

COCHIN AEROTROPOLIS PROJECTS LIMITED

A Special Purpose Vehicle comprising of real estate and infrastructure companies,L&T,INKEL A NRK funded PPP ENTERPRISE with technical partners like Changi Airport, Dubai World Central to create industrial and social infrastructure.The GMR Group and many other companies can invest in the aerotropolis and its various subprojects. INKEL has a strong capital base of Non Resident Keralites.To develop an entire satellite sub-city—houses, offices, factories, hotels, leisure. It will serve the airport and the airport will serve it.A “CITY BY ITSELF” A PRODUCTIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN CIAL,REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS AND THE NEIGHBORING MUNICIPALITIES OF ALWAYE,ANGAMALI,NORTH PARUR,PERUMBAVOOR ETC. It will shape and drive economic activity in the region.Industrial and IT Park,aircraft maintenance,megaplexes, repair and overall facility (MRO)which can be a spv or get investments from BOEING and GE AVIATION, aviation academy ,a health city, a captive power plant, manufacturing units and a rail-road terminal,star/budget hotels, logistics hub and center,18 hole golf course, residential township , retail centre, Star Hotels,Aviation Park,Hardware Park, Convention Centre/Exhibition Center, Amusement Park, cultural village, specialty hospital, educational institutions, Multi-Modal Transportation System( MMTS), Mono Rail Transport System (MRTS) preferably called the Cochin Air Metro which makes frequent stops around the airport — including the airline terminals, parking lots, hotel shuttle areas as well as remote areas.Bombardier Transportation should be the technical partner for the Cochin Air Metro.

Airport Shuttle buses that will ferry passengers to and from the airport from the designated 15 locations in the city,Dedicated Airport Train from city to Airport,Intermodal Transportation International Schools

CIAL’S AEROTROPOLIS(Airport City)

An economic development strategy of the 21st century now includes the planned AEROTROPOLIS, an aviation linked urban form consisting of an airport surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of light industrial space, office space, upscale retail mix, business-class hotel accommodations, restaurants, entertainment, recreation, golf courses, and single and multiple-family housing.

AIRPORTS AS CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICTS (CBD)

This new urban form has become a reality through the transformation of business from ground transport to air transport. The airport has become the Central Business District (CBD) providing employment, shopping, entertainment, and business meeting destinations, and spin-off businesses have sprung up around this new CBD in clusters of both radial and string formations.

PLANNING AND DESIGN

Planning and Design for the Aerotropolis includes European-style traffic circles, visually appealing architecture, integration of open space and active recreation, and mixed use development.

CORPORATE BENEFITS

The creation of an Aerotropolis provides a region with the ability to attract corporations that rely on time-sensitive manufacturing, e-commerce fulfillment, telecommunications, and have air-travel intensive professionals by providing convenient access to air travel transport to national and international locations.

COMMUNITY BENEFITS

Expected returns for a community with the development of an Aerotropolis include an international business presence; an increase in tax base; an increase in travelers to the region; construction jobs; a high-income white-collar work force covering office, research, technology, retail and commercial; and an increase in local material purchases. Local spending will increase with the aerotropolis becoming a destination place for business, and travelers visiting the area for purposes other than business will partake of shopping and attractions that are provided.

COMPANIES RECOGNIZE NEED FOR SPEED, AGILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY

Since business is now global, the successful business of the 21st century will be one that recognizes the importance of speed, agility and accessibility in providing products and services to their customers.

There has been a shift in the past 20 years from price and quality to speed. Alfred Taubler describes evidence of this in his 1990 publication Power Shift. Taubler states that competition is now based upon “survival of the fastest”.

Companies must recognize that change is constant, and be ready to adapt to change with production flexibility and product customization. This agility combined with shipment speed is mandatory.

Air commerce has changed the local and national focus of business to an international and global audience and customer base. Companies must place themselves in a physically advantageous position to take advantage of air travel for expeditious delivery of goods

A destination in itself and create a premier business, retail and entertainment hub. This area should be a well balanced mix of office parks, retail and entertainment and hospitality. The Aerotropolis concept was developed by John D. Kasarda, an American academic. An Aerotropolis is a city in which the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered around a major airport. Experts in the field are of the opinion that Airports will shape business location and urban development in this century as much as seaports did in the 18th century, railroads did in the 19th century and highways in the 20th century. Macroeconomic as well as microeconomic factors should be taken into consideration when building the Aerotropolis. There should be the targeted usage mix as well as the targeted development timelines for the Airport City. The Aerotropolis should be a well planned city like Chandigarh. Perhaps this Aerotropolis would hopefully become a benchmark in urban planning, unlike the planning mishap that is called Cochin now. An Aerotropolis is a new urban infrastructure form comprising aviation-intensive businesses and related enterprises extending up to 25 km outward from a major airport. It is similar in form and function to a traditional metropolis, which contains a central city core and its commuter-linked suburbs, much like Cochin and its satellite towns. For an Aerotropolis to develop around Cochin, we need to plan carefully. This would require adequate infrastructure inside the airport — such as cold storage facilities, cargo centre — to cater to industry outside. Similarly, we need to develop the infrastructure outside the airport such as roads and rail connectivity. carefully planned Aerotropolis around Cochin can “improve Kerala’s supply-chain networks and business competitiveness, boost agricultural, manufacturing and services exports, attract tourists and new foreign investment, and position the region as the 21st century air commerce crossroads of south Asia”. While the Aerotropolis have their merits, it requires comprehensive planning for effective construction and execution of such projects. For the concept of Aerotropolis to take off in India, the government would need to integrate airport planning with urban & regional planning and business cities planning

Similarly, an Aerotropolis has an ‘airport city’ at its core, which comprises retail malls; leisure and culture centers such as spas, museums, regional art; logistics and air cargo; hotels and entertainment; office and retail complexes, and is surrounded by clusters of aviation-related enterprises. Experts argue that Aerotropolis have significant economic impact extending up to 90 km. “Just as you have central cities and the greater metropolis, you now have airport cities and greater Aerotropolis,” said University of North Carolina Professor John D Kasarda, who pioneered the concept. Aerotropolis are powerful engines of local economic development, attracting air-commerce-linked businesses to the land surrounding major airports, analogous to the function of central business districts in the downtown areas of major cities.

Aerotropolises typically attract industries related to time-sensitive manufacturing, e-commerce fulfillment, telecommunications and logistics; hotels, retail outlets, entertainment complexes and exhibition centers; and offices for business people who travel frequently by air or engage in global commerce. Clusters of business parks, logistics parks, industrial parks, distribution centers, information technology complexes and wholesale merchandise marts locate around the airport and along the transportation corridors radiating from them.

FOR CIAL’S AEROTROPOLIS TO BE VIABLE

Globally, most airports operate on 60:40 split between city-side and air-side revenues.

Improved connectivity to and from the city. Metro rail must reach CIAL, along with the Railway station and boat terminals planned. Now CIAL set about making its foundations stronger, in other words strengthening its commercial background. In early 2000 Cochin was still struggling to shrug off its tag as a small city, a mini-metro, even though it constituted the industrial backbone of Kerala. The idea of a SEZ, with CIAL and the proposed Container Terminal in Vallarpadam as fulcrum was mooted. The new road connecting the two focal points was inaugurated in 2003, christened the Seaport-Airport Road. This highway is already rewriting the horoscope of Cochin and in the next phase it will connect the IT City blossoming on its corridors to the Airport. It should also have pipeline and fiber optic cable laid underneath it before the completion of its second and third phase. As a result of the InfoTech revolution that Cochin is going through and the increased use of water, natural gas, petroleum, and such petroleum products as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel, the demand and the urgent need for more fiber optic cable and pipelines has increased.. They also transport finely ground particles of coal, iron ore, and limestone that are used for various purposes. In addition, pipelines carry industrial waste and sewage. The gas service lines or pipeline distribute gas to millions of home users. CIAL should approach the state government to change the name of Nedumbaserry panchayat to CIAL NAGAR, VIMANA NAGAR or AEROTROPOLIS. The Aerotropolis project should also include a SEZ, a captive power plant, a health city, road and rail terminals, an international school, and a residential area. There should be a “airport village” with a local flavor complete with shops and a 2,500 sq m, post-terminal airport retail village. There should be an aviation park outside the airport area as well as a hardware park close to the airport. A first of its kind elevated expressway should be planned to help passengers reach from the city centre or places like the NH-47 and NH-17 Junction Edapally along with an expanded 6 lane NH road which takes passenger to the new airport from the city within minutes. The Aerotropolis should be conceptualized and made available in a phased manner. The 6 lane NH Road will go from the AEROTROPOLIS through ATHANI,MANJALI up to NH 17. From there it will continue as a expressway that goes up to the Cochin NH 47 Byepass , it can also be extended to the proposed Pachalam Roundabout which will have the following connections 1) An arm towards Marine Drive 2) An arm towards Kaloor 3) An arm towards NH 17 4) An arm towards Gosree Bridges 5) A connection between Chittoor Road and Mathai Manjooran Road. In view of the coming up International Container Transshipment Terminal at Vallarpadam this roundabout is strategically important.Two National highways NH 47 and NH 17 join the Bye Pass Jn at Edappally.The Byepass connects Edappaly with Aroor which is an industrial town of Cochin, south of Aroor is the emerging satellite township of Cherthala and Alleppey the Venice of the East. Bye-Pass Junction in Edappally is the north end of the Cochin Byepass which extends up to Aroor via Vytilla Jn. This entire route is evolving into a major business hub with bigtime shopping malls and five star hotels. Another is a expressway going east from the Aerotropolis via Kalady, to Anamudi the highest point in South India connecting spiritual and tourist destinations like Kalady, Malayatoor,Athirpally, Bhoothathankettu Dam, Thattekad Bird Sanctuary,Munnar and Thekkady on the way to Anamudi in the High Ranges. It would serve a similar purpose to the Airport Seaport Road which connect various industrial regions. The Aerotropolis Anamudi expressway would be boost for Kerala Tourism. Also the Aerotropolis should have a MMTS.

A technology center, which will house research campuses for global corporates, should be in the plan ,in it there should also be some office spaces, service apartments, and healthcare and supporting retail spaces. The technology centre should be located at the entry to the airport on the main access road. There should also be a separate business unit will house prime office space, two hotels (three- and four-star) and again more retail spaces. The AEROTROPOLIS should also have a downtown area which ideally should be the closest to the terminal building making it interesting to the airport user. The Downtown area should be positioned as a typical urban entertainment centre with retail formats and food courts, leisure and entertainment spaces, multiplexes, health and wellness facilities, a five-star hotel and some office space This part will should also have an airport visitor center. Even though CIAL already has hotels in its vicinity CIAL should select the TAJ GROUP and the OBEROI GROUP to operate first class international hotels. The hotels should be within walking distance from the terminal building and should comprise of 321 keys, large conference facilities and a world class spa.

CIAL’s AEROTROPOLIS should have these essential components

An extensive study should be conducted by a leading independent property consultant taking into account both macroeconomic as well as microeconomic factors. There should be a targeted usage mix as well as the targeted development timelines for the Airport City. The following components should be conceptualized based on the urban as well as test planning for the Airport City

1. DOWNTOWN AREA

This area should be the closest to the terminal building and will be positioned as a typical urban entertainment center . It will house a shopping area with various retail formats, entertainment facilities, offices and hospitality facilities.

A Downtown area can address the time of passengers, meters and greeters who arrive early to the airport. Additionally, due to the Downtown Area being closely linked to the Business Unit Area will help attract additional footfalls from the offices.

An ‘Airport Visitor Centre’ should be planned opposite the Downtown area. Here, visitors will have the opportunity to observe the airport operations and combine this experience with travel, entertainment and business or simply as an independent visit.

The Downtown area should be developed in a phased manner through a tender process by one developer. It will have its own metro station once the Cochin metro network is connected to the Airport. The Downtown should also be the new home of the Ernakulam District Court which is currently occupying the old collectorate building in Ernakulam.Having the court located in the Aerotrolises will generate more non aeronautical revenue.

2. BUSINESS UNIT

This area should lie between the Downtown area on the eastern side and the Middle area on the western side. It should house a business park for premium office space and will consist of support retail, a 3 star and a 4 star hotel.

The connection to the area should be through the central access road on its north side and through the southern main road on its south side.

The Business Unit area should be developed in a phased manor through a tender process by one developer.

3. TECHNOLOGY CENTRE

This area should be located at the entry of the Airport on the main access road. The Technology Centre can be a hub for global corporates who will have the option to establish research campuses for highly qualified personnel. The Technology Centre area can also house healthcare, support retail and hospitality services.CIAL should execute land lease agreements with the corporates who will then design their facility with the preferred developers according to their needs

4. MIDDLE AREA

This area should exactly between the Business Unit and the Technology Center. This area of approximately 15 acres of land should be used as a park area with recreation facilities for the visitors as well as the employees. It can be reserved for a possible taxiway connection between the two runways in future

The airport city should have more hotels complimenting one another, along with destination retail, serviced apartments, office park, software campuses and a lot of free public spaces, which will make it a truly global enclave. To supplement its already existing cargo operations CIAL should build and operate two state-of-the-art general cargo warehouses for both domestic and international cargo with an initial capacity to handle 300,000 mt of cargo per year, collectively.

This ambitious goal will not happen overnight, and it will not happen without the continued commitment and engagement of the region’s public and private sector leaders. The project is too big for any one community to tackle alone — the development should be spread over multiple parcels and multiple jurisdictions and be a partnership between local communities,universities,private and non profit partners.

AEROTROPOLIS EXAMPLES

Newark Aerotropolis

Singapore Changi

Aerotropolis

Amsterdam Schipol Aerotropolis

Nagpur’s MIHAN AEROTROPOLIS

COCHIN(Kochi)
It happened in several major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad . And now it’s the turn of Kochi to follow suit. Yes, this time around, the real estate boom in Kochi is for real and is here to stay. The prices of land, villas and apartments have gone up significantly and in certain areas it has even toppled the expectations of all. In spite of the prices having gone up steeply, hectic activities in every aspect of realty business is taking place, especially in places like Kakkanad and of late in and around Nedumbassery.

As is evident in every respect, it is the IT sector that has worked as a catalyst for the entire construction sector. This apart, a number of mega industrial projects that are expected to come up centering Kochi have also inspired many to take a plunge into the construction scene in Kochi .

IT centre
Due to a number of favourable factors, Kochi is fast becoming an important IT hub in the country. And in Kochi it’s Kakkanad that’s hogging all the limelight. With several IT and ITES companies having already come up in Kakkanad more such players are planning to make Kochi as one of their predominant operational centres.

Finding a very prospective market, several nationally renowned realtors have also joined the existing city-based builders with plenty of projects. All these have further enhanced the fortunes of not only Kakkanad but also several other areas surrounding it. In the real estate segment, if one is to evaluate the growth rate, it would not be difficult to find that most of the towns enveloping Kochi have witnessed amazing growth in more ways than one.

International airport
For instance Nedumbassery which, till the other day, was rather a sleepy village is now in the midst of hectic construction activities. Several projects have been announced centering Nedumbassery and according to market men more are in the offing. They are working overtime to meet the ever spiraling demand for quality housing and in the process; the skyline of this otherwise rustic region is witnessing a revolution in the true sense of the word.

Factors like huge growth prospects, serene ambience, easy availability of drinking water and good connectivity are just some of the reasons that are prompting people to buy properties in places like Nedumbassery. Realising the immense potential for growth, several leading builders have announced their upcoming projects centering Nedumbassery.

And in the process, the fortunes of the entire region surrounding Nedumbassery will take a turnaround in near future. For more reasons than one, Nedumbassery surely is going to be one of Kochi ’s trump cards in the days to come.

Taking a definite cue from the likely developments that will take place in future in and around airport, numerous housing projects are in the offing. And if the responses to the already announced projects are any indication, the future looks too bright. IT boom has changed the fortunes of Kakkanad, in the case of Nedumbassery it‘s the presence of the Cochin International Airport.

Set for takeoff
The CIAL having become one of the busiest airports in the country in terms of both traffic and turn over, the entire region of Nedumbassery and its neighbourhood areas are on a fast developmental track today.With the pendulum of fortunes increasingly swinging in its favour not only Kakkanad but also Nedumbassery is all set for a great take off.

It is believed that in almost all spheres of entrepreneurship like housing, information technology, healthcare and tourism, Nedumbassery has immense growth potential in its fold. Resultantly, along with Kakkanad, Nedumbassery is also fast turning out to be the fountainhead of all developmental activities in the city.

KERALA.COM

The first airport in India built under the public-private partnership model, the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), has set an example for greenfield airport projects. With the airport commissioned in 1994 and opened five years later, CIAL declared dividends in its fourth year of operations—that, too, in the state of Kerala, widely considered investor unfriendly and with a record of labour unrest. While still small by many standards—it operates only 35 flights a day, 60% international and 40% domestic—CIAL has plans to emerge as a passenger and cargo hub in the rapidly growing southern region. CIAL managing director S Bharath explains to FE’s Satya Naagesh Ayyagary his flight plan for the future. Excerpts:

How would you rate CIAL today after eight years of operations?

In the last two years, we have done extremely well. In 2005-06 our turnover was Rs 100 crore with PAT of Rs 31 crore. In 2006-07, it was Rs 112 crore with PAT of Rs 34 crore, which is about 30%, compared to the industry average of about 8%. This is an unheard of figure in the aviation industry. CIAL has become a case study at Harvard Business School.

Do you think it will be possible to sustain that kind of growth?

We can. The reason: seven million people of Indian origin work in the Gulf. Of this, five million are from Kerala. That number is increasing at a high rate. Say 60% of them—or, three million—come home once a year. If I give them an opportunity to come home twice, it makes six million passengers. Double that it makes 12 million. At the moment, CIAL handles 2.8 million passengers. We are definitely going to be a success story over the next 15 years.

Aren’t you overestimating the opportunities for the future?

I don’t think so. We are also in the process of creating an aerotropolis leveraging the state’s strengths. We already have a master plan to make Cochin the gateway to Kerala. We are setting up the necessary infrastructure for tourism. That includes an 18-hole golf course with a country club followed by a couple of star and budget hotels. We will have an exhibition and convention centre. We will also have a trade and cultural village, amusement parks with shopping malls, food courts and multiplexes all showcasing Kerala. Whether eco-tourism or medical tourism, every aspect will be taken care of in partnership with Kerala Tourism.

We also have a couple of business initiatives like an IT Park, a BPO park and biotech park, preferably as SEZs. We have already submitted an application with the central government for SEZ status. So, this is going to be a first airport-based IT park as an SEZ.

We are going to set up an aviation academy. We are in talks with Cochin University of Science & Technology to partner with them and are also in talks with IIMs for a programme in aviation management. If 35 airports in the country are going to be privatised in the first phase, you can imagine the number of aviation specialists that will be needed. So, we want to fill that gap. We are setting up aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities under Cochin International Aviation Services Ltd, where we will hold 51% stake. We have floated a global tender for this and spoken with all the major players. We will tie up with a major airline for committed business.

We are also pushing hard for a flying school. We are talking to the old Cochin airport authorities in the naval enclave. We would like to use the old Cochin airport runway for a few hours a day and offer revenue share to the Indian Navy.

You also intend to make Cochin a hub for cargo as well. How do you plan to do that?

We are setting up a Rs 60-crore centre for perishable cargo with a Rs 15-crore grant from the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, which will handle 30,000 mt of export-import cargo a year. We have held talks with airlines like Etihad and Emirates to start a dedicated cargo service from Cochin. We are also constructing an exclusive cargo bay for this centre.

That apart, we have the normal domestic and international cargo operations spread over 60,000 sq ft, which we want to improve. Cochin is strategically close to the Gulf and also to Coimbatore, a centre for textiles, textile machinery, and poultry. Pollachi is the belt for fruits & vegetables, Tirupur for knitwear, and Ooty for flowers. We are going to have a seamless operation with bonded trucking bringing the cargo straight here.

We have also applied to the department of revenue, for electronic data interchange (EDI) for cargo movement, which exists only in the metros. Under the EDI system, documents would come electronically before the cargo arrives here so exporters can get their duty drawback immediately. We should get the system going by the end of this year and fully operational by April 2008.

With Hyderabad International Airport and Bangalore International Airport coming up and Kannur and Calicut promoting themselves, where do you see CIAL in this competitive scenario?

We are geographically and strategically located and have positioned ourselves accordingly. We are close to all those major cities: Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Also, the government of Kerala is marketing the state as a very hot Tier-II IT destination. As part of its IT mission, Trivandrum-Cochin-Calicut will be the hub and the district IT parks will be the spokes. Internationally, we have a domain population in the Gulf, which will never go down. Also, Hyderabad and Bangalore cannot offer the same beauty as Kerala in tourism. So, we will woo the business traveller to come to Kerala and combine business with pleasure. There will be competition, but they will not be able to take away any of our traffic as we are targeting a different segment. Sure, while we expect some rationalisation, we will able to take that well.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/We-will-create-an-aerotropolis-leveraging-the-states-strengths/236033/0

EXCELLENT SERVICE! One of the lowest cost airports ever built the Cochi airport is setting standards.

Cochin (Kerala): While the rest of the country debates over the efficiency of our airports, the Cochin International Airport is setting a benchmark of its own.

One of the lowest cost airports to be ever built, not only has it been a success model but is also turning out to be a huge hit among passengers.

An exporter who travels out of the country very often, Brijesh Pattai says he opted for Cochin because he wanted a hassle-free journey as he waits for the Air-Arabia flight to Sharjah with his sister Sudha and her eight-year-old child

“We always select Cochin airport for flying out as well as in. One it’s located centrally in the state, customs or the emigration behave so well, the service is so good,” says Brijesh.

And this small town airport is a hit with domestic flyers too.

This is the most excellent and beautiful airport. The service is very good,” says a passenger, Ruby.

The country’s first airport built on private-public partnership, the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) is now building the country’s first aerotropolis or airport city over 1300 acres of land.

Apart from the airport, it consists of:

A 6.4 crore IT park.

A world class golf course and a country club.

A perishable cargo unit.

Five-star and budget hotels.

An aviation academy.

A hanger and maintenance unit exclusively for Airbus 380, the largest aircraft in the world.

And all this apart there is a world-class duty-free shop that is already doing great business.

“The aerotropolis is master-planned keeping in mind a theme. The theme is two pronged. One is to promote employment in the state of kerala and another is to promote tourism. To promote employment we are putting an IT park which will give job to 15-20,000 people directly and indirectly,” says MD, CIAL, S Bharath.

So from 57 to 122 crore rupees in four years, he Cochin airport is today a case study for students at Harvard and CIAL is a consultant to a number of countries hoping to build low-cost airports.

A decade from now this airport will change the way we look at civil aviation in this country.

But till then passengers can only hope that the standards set here are emulated across the country.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/cochin-airport-a-huge-hit-among-passengers/61876-3.html

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