The KochiNow Blog

Need for speed

Leaving behind its excessive politicisation and ideological obstinacy, Kochi is speeding towards the future. R Gopakumar is caught amidst the rising din and bustle of a city reinventing itself.

For a tourist, Kochi evokes a series of typical images - picturesque backwaters, a seaside dotted by Chinese fishing nets, the ancient synagogue and maybe a few high-rises. But for the new-age Keralite, Kochi signifies immense hopes and aspirations. It is a pointer towards the future.

Kochiites have led the increasingly vocal demand for liberation from excessive politicisation and ideological obstinacies that had waylaid Kerala’s development for decades.

So it is no wonder that in the last 20 months, residents of this port city have been enthusiastically cheering the announcement of a slew of projects which are expected to transform Kochi. District collector Mohammed Hanish says that investment worth a whopping Rs 25,000 crore is in the pipeline. They include a dozen port-based projects, a knowledge village, over a dozen IT parks, special economic zones, petrochemical complex and the expansion of Kochi International airport. Most of the projects are coming up under a public-private partnership.

Making the boom

There was a time when investors were hesitant to put their money in Kochi. The question which haunted them was: Are these going to work out in Kerala? The government-owned Infopark’s former CEO Girish Babu says it was Wipro Infotech’s decision in July 2004 to set up its base in Kochi that changed the minds of these fence-sitters. Simultaneously, a number of port-based projects and IT parks were also announced.

The more enterprising among business-savvy Kochiites foresaw the future prospects looming large and bought up land. “A large number of city-based traders began to purchase plots mostly in east Kochi, Kakkanad and along the bypass in the last two years,’’ says Viju Mathew, a medical shop owner. According to prominent builder Kunnel Antony of Kunnel Constructions, land prices have skyrocketed from Rs 2 lakh a cent (one cent is approx 435 sq ft) to Rs 20 lakh a cent in certain areas. Apartment space which was available for just about Rs 100 per square feet five years ago will now cost between Rs 350 and Rs 600 per sq ft. And guess who is buying up land and new apartments: young IT professionals and the nouveau rich.

“Youths in their early 20s are now proud owners of luxury apartments in the city,’’ says Antony. “There are over 30 apartment projects coming up in Kakkanad alone.’’ However, the clusters that are sprouting every day are not sticking to a township plan.

Mathews Jose, 28, who runs a software company called Calpine Technologies at Infopark, is excited about the changes. “My father has constructed a house for me at Edapally and I have also purchased a flat in Kadavanthara for Rs 28 lakh,’’ he says. “Many of my friends are also buying flats.’’

Rising from sea

Pundits say Kochi’s sudden overdrive in development was godsend. “We were happy to apportion the new land that had emerged from the sea for development,’’ says the district collector.

He is referring to the large tracts of land which emerged by accretion of sediments in the last 40 years in Puthuvypeen area. Several port-based terminals and even a golf course are coming up in this stretch.

As New Kochi literally emerges from the sea, the size of the city itself has been quadrupling. Its geographical boundaries now stretch from Aroor in Alappuzha to Kodungalloor in Thrissur district. As in the case of other metros starved of land, the buildings have already taken to vertical growth. High-rises are a common ight. All this has created infrastructure problems of its own; traffic chaos for instance. The district collector himself acknowledges that driving through the city is a nightmare. He is counting on the National Urban Renewal Fund and the roads development fund to work wonders. In fact, these infrastructural deficiencies have been the worrying factor for top IT honchos and new investors. The Kochi metro rail project and Skybus project have not elicited a positive response from the Centre so far.

Environmentalist M K Prasad says the city is heading for a disaster. “Ideally, an environmental impact assessment should be made on each sector such as waterways and roads,’’ he says. “But the authorities are ignorant about the need to undertake such basic studies.’’

Tourism thrives

Amid the rising din and bustle of a city reinventing itself, tourism has been making rapid strides. After rail, heritage and nature tourism, farm and village tourism have been quietly making an impact. Medical tourism too has been catching up. Several top hospitals such as Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Lakeshore Hospital are getting clients from the Gulf and Europe. Some tour operators have even devised a different version of health tourism for NRIs who come on vacation.

Fort Kochi beach, Bolgatty and Mattanchery continue to remain Kochi’s prime tourist attractions. “A traveller bound for Munnar, Thekkady, Kumarakom or even Kovalam now alights at Kochi. However, the chartered flights still prefer to fly to Thiruvananthapuram,’’ says Johny Abraham of Intersight Travels.

According to Jose Dominic of ‘cgh Earth’ group of hotels, Kochi has been catering mostly to the business traveller. “Kochi remains the gateway for tourists to the state and the tourist activity cannot be separated from those of the state,’’ he says.

All said, Kochi’s exploits in netting projects are often being mistaken for political pampering by a section of people down south in Thiruvananthapuram and northward Kannur. Though the capital city had the state’s first international airport two decades ago, its expansion is only just about beginning to happen now. Worse, top airlines are operating from Kochi or have shifted operations bowing to the growing demand.

According to a top government official who did not want to be named, Kochiites may be in a most positive frame of mind compared to their brethren elsewhere in the state. “The non-Kochiites have a mindset which always see a demonstration waylaying them or a hartal crippling their plans. Perhaps, Kochiites have started looking at things in a different way.’’

Kochi turns glitzy: life on the fast lane

The commercial capital of Kerala had always been the favourite jaunt of NRIs and rich planters of neighbouring small towns. They used to drive to the city on weekends for shopping and eating out. But the city was never a high-funda destination like Mumbai. It did not have major entertainment or shopping avenues till a couple of years ago.

The increasing affluence of the upper middle classes and the “flaunt it if you have it’’ attitude changed things. Kochiites, like their cousins in other metros, started buying fast cars and building big houses. They also demand more entertainment and glossy shopping avenues. Realising this demand, amusement parks like Vega Land and Silver Storm happened in a big way in Kochi and Thrissur.

Now, with the city turning even more cosmopolitan, IT professionals and cash-surplus Kochiites have been demanding more. “Malls, iMax, supermarkets, public plazas, golf courses are all springing up and I see a bright future for this city,” says Rauf, 27, a travel operator.

Baypride, the first mall in the city as also the state, began functioning in a modest way at Marine Drive on M G Road only six months ago. Four other malls are under construction in different parts of the city.

“Multicuisine restaurants, coffee shops and clubs are mushrooming. Besides, one can always drive down to Kumarakom to spend a quiet weekend in a houseboat or up to Munnar and feel the chill,’’ says Arun, regional manager of Jacobson’s i-solutions.

There may be no night life here yet as in Mumbai, Hyderabad or Bangalore. This may change in the near future. “We introduced day discos on the last Friday of the month for the sake of the IT guys and it was received very well. A couple was charged an entry fee of Rs 300. Around 60 couples turned up for the first show,’’ says Vikas F & B Manager of Taj Residency. However, the Hotel Avenue Regent stopped holding day disco as it became a nuisance and because of the fact that it already had a popular evening disco.

To think that all the money is being splurged by the young IT professionals would be absurd. “A lot of people in Kochi have benefited from the real estate business and the spin-off services of tourism and IT,’’ says Lalu Jacob, a high school teacher. “They all have money to spend’’.

However, the growing affluence of a section of people has also created deeper class divides. With a history of being very consumerist, Kerala society is already encountering problems caused by unfulfilled aspirations. For instance, the number of gold shops mushrooming these days may match the rising suicide graph. Correspondingly, the underworld has also grown in Kochi and the city has been grappling with daylight robberies, goonda attacks and even organised looting.

R G

IT parks add to investment boom

Kakkanad, just five kms away from Kochi city, has metamorphosed into a technocity where many IT projects are coming up. The government-owned Infopark here is adding eight lakh sq ft space to its existing four lakh sq ft which has been cornered by mostly foreign companies. Wipro Infotech plans to complete the construction of its 25 acre campus here in another eight months. The Leela group has already built 1.3 lakh sq ft of space and is set to expand. Besides these, several other IT parks have sprung up in the city.

These also include a technopolis with 3.5 lakh sq ft space coming up in the Kakkanad special economic zone. Interestingly, the fate of the Smart City which set the ball rolling still hangs in balance. This project is all set to come up in Kakkanad. Negotiations between the Dubai Freezone Authority and the state government are still going on.

Builders based outside the state like Puravankara, Prestige, Unitech, DLF, Rahejas et al have either announced their projects or are in the negotiation stage. Over 30 housing projects are springing up in Kakkanad alone to meet the rising demand.

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Port thrust

The transformation of this picturesque port city into a buzzing metro should have happened long ago since Kochi has one of the oldest ports in the country. The major hitch remained Kerala’s reputation as a land obsessed with politics and trade unionism.

A positive beginning to boost investor confidence was made by the Antony government in January 2003 when it held the first global investment meet (GIM) in Kochi.

It took a couple of years more for the projects to take shape, that too only after the talks on the Rs 5,000-crore Smart City got serious. In less than two years, Kochi has landed projects worth about Rs 25,000 crores spanning port-based projects, gas pipeline, petrochemicals and IT.

Dubai Ports World is set to begin construction work on the international container transshipment terminal in January.