The KochiNow Blog

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Courtesy: Mathrubhumi supplement

Wipro completes 350,000 sqft facility at Infopark, which will
immediately engage 3500 professionals. When full completed
it will have 8500 working there. The campus will have
1.1 milion sqft space.

L&T is set open 450,000 sqft Tejomaya building by Sept 2007
which will have 3500 employed in Hewlett-Packard and
L&T Infotech.

Leela Infopark will add another 330,000 sqft by Sept 2007 for
3200 professionals.

By September ‘07, Infopark will have 15000 employed, from
its current 4500.

What more… TCS is starting construction of a 800,000 sqft facility
and IBS that of a 350,000 sqft building by August this year.
Add to that, Perot Systems with a 500,000 sqft SDF for 5000 people
which is set to start construction in Nov 2007.

22 & 32 floors

Venduruthy parallel bridge to get a new lease of life
Saturday June 16 2007 13:38 IST

KOCHI: The Venduruthy parallel bridge, the construction work of which was stopped six months ago, will get a new lease of life as the survey of the land for constructing the approach road to the bridge has been completed.

Cochin Shipyard, which owns the land, will hand it over to the State Government soon.

Non-availability of land, coupled with the government’s failure to pay the contractor, had stopped the work.

Meanwhile, the meeting convened by District Collector A P M Mohammed Hanish on Friday decided to conduct a survey by Inland Water Authority, along with the Navy, Fisheries Department, PWD officials and the representatives of fishermen on Saturday to ascertain the width of the navigation channel.

Though the channel, according to international standards, will need a width of 50 m, it is learnt that considering the conditions prevailing here, such a channel may not be possible here.

The low width of the channel is said to be the cause of ships and dredgers hitting the Venduruthy bridge. There have been reports of dredgers hitting fishing nets too.

Even though the piling work has almost been completed, the amount promised by the Port Trust and the Navy for the work is yet to be received.

The work of 15 pier points, which comes around one third of the total Rs 36-crore estimate, has been completed. But, only Rs 9 crore has so far been released, the contractors say.

The work began in January 2006.

The meeting of the beneficiaries of the work, convened by the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, had agreed in principle that the cost of the work should be shared equally by the Cochin Port Trust, Public Works Department and the Naval Base.

Later, the Cochin Port Trust and the Navy backtracked on their promise, saying the bridge was not part of the national highway.

After months-long delay, the State Government has written to the Union Government for the release of the fund, after the intervention of Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.

At last the IT- Industrial policy is out and the day saw minister also
announcing that sanction will be given for 6 SEZs at Kochi waiting
for sanction for over 7-8 months. They include IT SEZs by renowned
infrastructure developers Parsvnath and Unitech. Each of these comes
to about 3 to 4 million sqft. There are 3 more IT SEZs and a
manufacturingand trade zone, all at Kochi.

Structural Plan for Kochi notified

Staff Reporter

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FAR in NH Bypass Road, Seaport-Airport Road, Refinery Road, Vaikom Road: 2.5

FAR in Kakkanad fixed at 2

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KOCHI: In a notification issued by the Department of Town Planning, the Structural Plan for Kochi has been finalised for an interim period till the land survey for developing a master plan for the district is completed.

Kakkanad, which has been witnessing a lot of development in terms of housing and commercial places, has been provided with a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 2.

Special provisions

In the special provisions indicated in the notification, mixed use would be permitted on either side of the roads having a width of 12 meters or more, up to a depth of 75 meters from the boundary of the road.

For the NH 47 Bypass Road from the southern boundary of the Central city to Edappally, mixed use would be permitted on both sides of the road up to a depth of 250 meters from the road boundary. Full story - The Hindu

the new interim FAR orders. Clear direction given by HC to decide the FAR on the basis of public
interest has been thrown to wind. The bureaucrats at town planning dept have shown their penchant
to play to the tune of some parochial elements in Trivandrum while trying to create obstacles in the progress of Kochi. It is time a strong movement to regain the decentralised planning powers as well as to cut down these bureaucratic rodents to size. At the same time a contempt of court proceeding must be initiated against the chief town planner so that in future such tendencies to become extra-legal authorities are curtailed.

Slew of new star-hotels in Kochi to woo tourists

The hotels cater to the boom in tourism, IT and shipping sectors being witnessed in the State

BOOM TIME: Ten star-hotel projects are in the pipeline in Kochi. — Photo: Vipin Chandran

Around 10 star-hotel projects are in the pipeline in Kochi, catering to the increasing tourist arrivals and business activity in the city.

The hotels cater to the boom in tourism, Information Technology and shipping sectors being witnessed in the State, with Kochi as the focal point. The new ventures coming up in Kochi include a hotel by Middle-East Hotels Company, that is nearing completion in Sahodaran Aiyyappan Road; a joint venture of Indroyal and Holiday Inn, work on which is on in the NH 47 bypass at Chakkaraparambu; a five-star hotel by KGA Group at Kundanoor Junction; and a star hotel of Muthoot Group, proposed in the NH 47 bypass and a project of Synthite Group, at Kumbalam.

The other prominent star hotels coming up or in the commissioning stage are the four-star sister hotel of Harbour View, at Palarivattom; Hotel Mercy’s 60-room three-star property at Ravipuram; a star hotel of Abad Group in Princess Street, Fort Kochi; star cottages of Saj Group and Cafs, a state-of-the-art flight kitchen of Casino Group, both near the international airport.

It is reliably learnt that hotel chains have bought vast tracts of land in the area between Kalamassery and the Airport-Seaport Road and near the airport, to cater to increasing number of guests from the airport and IT establishments in Kakkanad.

The additional director of Kerala Tourism U V Jose says that there is need to create at least 5,000 quality hotel rooms in three years, in Kerala. “Building new hotels got an impetus last year. Where they come up too is important. The Malabar region badly needs more rooms. This is especially true of Wayanad, which is thronged during weekends by the IT crowd from Bangalore. Bekal is another developing area.”

Travancore Court in Warriam Road is the latest star-hotel project to be commissioned in the city. It is promoted jointly by cine star Mohanlal and V K Mohammed Ashraf, an NRI businessman. Mohanlal is already a promoter of Harbour Market, a seafood restaurant, in Bangalore.

Kuwait-based KGA Group has ventured into the hospitality and tourism sectors in Kerala, with an initial outlay of Rs.600 crores in the next five years. The group plans to set up a Rs.220 crore five-star hotel in collaboration with Crowne Plaza of the Intercontinental Hotel Group, at Kundanoor Junction. The hotel will have 210 rooms and a conferencing facility.

John L. Paul

Record tax collection in Ernakulam district

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Ernakulam district collected a record Rs. 4,680 crore in sales- and value-added taxes in 2006-07. The Ernakulam division collected Rs. 4,299 crore and Mattancherry Rs. 381 crore.

More than half of the State’s tax revenue comes from the district. The office of Sales Tax Deputy Commissioners P.G. Sasidharan and K.A. Soman says the collection has met 92 per cent of the target.

The target for the financial year 2007-08 is Rs. 6,085 crore, of which Rs. 5,600 crore has been set for Ernakulam division and Rs. 485 crore for Mattancherry.

Apart from the trading business in Kochi, sales tax will be collected this year from information-technology companies, oil mills in Paravoor, tile trade, timber and brick units in Aluva, plywood trade in Kunnathunad, plastic business, rubber traders in Muvattupuzha and manufacturers of a variety of products from Kothamangalam.

The officials said in a press release that the intelligence and audit units of the department would take strong steps to raise sales-tax revenue.

32 storied Puravankara MoonReach, Kakkanad