“The growth of the city has been unimaginable,” says K.J. Sohan, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Development of the City Corporation. Had the plan taken shape 10 years ago, public transport and housing would have got an impetus.

Water-supply is a major problem facing the city now, he says. Water sources should be public property. A good portion of the waterfront areas in Kochi is in the hands of private developers, he says.

The councillor says the topography of the city will help evolve a wonderful waterway, which, if integrated with the road and rail transport systems, will decongest the roads.

Transport

Mr. Sohan speaks of transit-oriented development in his report on the “Transport system for the people of Kochi.” The transport corridors should back high-density growth in a city area. There should be a surcharge on such type of growth to meet the transport costs, he says.

There is no city in the country that has such a network of waterbodies as Kochi does. These link the suburbs to the city, Mr. Sohan says. In fact, Kochi boasts three national waterways, which, however, remain unutilised for public transport. The National Waterways Authority of India promotes only cargo transport through these waterways, he says. Boats are so obsolete and the water-transport infrastructure so crude that people find road transport much safer and faster.

He says the master plan, for projected growth up to 2025, can give a direction to the city’s development, especially with focus on transport mechanisms and infrastructure.

Over the past 10 years, nearly 25 apartment complexes with over 10 storeys each have come up in the city, he says. A master plan would have gone a long way in determining the water-supply and power requirements of the city. Zoning of residential, commercial and industrial categories help specify the needs of water, power and transport facilities in a given area.

The development of the city has taken place along the railway line from north to south, but with only two over-bridges connecting the two areas separated by the tracks, the entry points into the city has become choked. This points to a lack of spatial planning, Mr. Sohan says.

The recent changes in the building rules have been good in limiting the built-up area according to the road width. Huge constructions will now move out of the city area, he says.

The blueprint of the master plan will be notified for the people to raise objections.
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The firms have been told to submit expressions of interest, along with the technical and the commercial bids. The project, together with those in Thiruvananthapuaram and other locations, is expected to take the board’s growth into a new direction.

A. Rahmatulla, Chairman of the board, told The Hindu that the valuation of the bids would be completed in about a fortnight’s time. The project would come up on 17.9 acres (one acre = 0.4 hectare) of land under a joint venture or a public-private partnership through a special purpose vehicle.

Feasibility study

The consultant will prepare a techno-commercial feasibility study for the development and the commercial exploitation of the property. The board expects an upfront fee of at least Rs.260 crore and a minimum investment of Rs.1,000 crore.

The consultant is expected to do a market study and a demand assessment, prepare a conceptual design conforming to the rules and regulations, form the special purpose vehicle and select development partners through an international competitive bidding.

Mr. Rahmatulla denied the allegation that the project would harm the environs of the Mangalavanam bird sanctuary, saying the property is further away from the sanctuary than many other high-rise buildings that had come up in its proximity.

The board, he said, has made it amply clear in the call for expression of interest that the developer should consider the ecological aspects of the project as a priority.

The invitation for expression of interest said: “The development shall be with utmost consideration for the ecology of the Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary.”

The board has said that there are several high-rise buildings, many with more than 10 storeys, in the vicinity of Mangalavanam and objecting to the board’s project alone sounds harsh.

Mr. Rahmatulla said the work on the project would begin only after the mandatory clearances were obtained.

M.K. Prasad, environmentalist and former president of the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, has said that the project will be detrimental to Mangalavanam, considered the lungs of Kochi.

The combine of trade unions at the board has said that the board is aware of the concerns expressed in the media and the ecological aspects of the project will be considered.

In a press statement, the trade union leaders alleged that vested interests might be behind spreading unfounded concerns over the project.

They drew attention to the board’s services in providing affordable houses to the poor. However, the board had run into financial difficulties for various reasons, such as the recent writing off of the dues. Strengthening of the board was imperative to meet the housing requirements of the economically weaker sections.

With this view, they said, the State government, in the budget for 2009-10, proposed a project on the Marine Drive property and such other lands. Sufficient thought has already gone into the ecological aspects.

The project is among the several envisaged by the board, which is looking to revive its fortunes.

The proposal is for the development of around 100 acres of its land spread across the State. The projects are envisaged to bring in investments of more than Rs.2,000 crore.

The projects include those planned at Kaloor in Kochi, at Akkulam, near Thiruvananthapuram, in Kozhikode and in Thrissur.
News Published Under:  The Hindu

There are enquiries for villas, but unfortunately, there are no stocks available at present. The builders over the last year had concentrated more on delivering the ongoing projects. It was not a good time to announce new ones.

The customers’ approach is to go in only for finished products or projects nearing completion. This approach has slightly changed, he says. However, the change in this graph has favoured only builders who have sustained through the recessionary period and have delivered their products in time. Unless progress is seen in a project, customer confidence will be lacking.

The customer confidence is just coming back, says M. Unnikrishnan of the Thripunithura-based Royal Projects. There is a release from fear. The market is very much alive, but the budgeting is small. The customer is having a studied approach, Mr. Unnikrishnan adds.

Earlier, an investor will put in an extra effort to go for a higher budget, but now the customer is looking at the builder to help them make a good buy within their fixed budget. In fact, quite a few genuine enquiries are not materialising into buys only on the aspect of cost.

Customers have had to face bad times because quite a few projects in areas such as Kakkanad have come to a standstill. These probably had come up without any USP and hence were hit by the market trend, Dr. Zackeria says. The delay in the SmartCity project may also have been playing on the customer mind. Another factor affecting Kakkanad was perhaps the mushrooming of a number of small-time builders during the boom period, some of whom were not able to sustain through the difficult times. The builders are taking the new momentum in the market with caution. “We do not expect any rapid improvement,” Dr. Zackeria says. It will take about another six to eight months for a turnaround, he adds. It will happen as a spontaneous effect of the overall economic improvement, and depending upon the absorption of the present supply of stock and end-user demand, the new supply will start trickling in.

In fact, quite a few builders are waiting for some more time to pass before they announce their new projects. The full concentration is on completing projects in time.
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“The golf course would open with nine holes by December this year. Building this would cost Rs.20 crore (Rs.200 million). The first phase would be ready by December and this would match any international golf course,” CIAL company secretary K. Venkitesweran said.

He said the state-of-the-art golf course will have 18 holes. “The golf course, situated on 130 acres, is coming up just next to the fourth largest airport that handles many international passengers in the country.”

Venkitesweran said 800 applications have been sold for Rs.10,000 each by now.

“By next month we expect to do the screening of the applications and allotment of membership would begin. We have an early bird offer where the membership fee has been fixed at Rs.200,000,” he said.

In July this year, CIAL announced a dividend of 10 percent, up from eight percent announced last year. The paid up capital of CIAL is Rs.300 crore.
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Their apprehensions on these issues are not unfounded, as many infrastructure projects have been in limbo in the city.

While the Delhi Metro Corporation has earned a good reputation for getting work done in record time, work in Kerala will be a different game altogether, believe some of the major builders.

Most builders have welcomed the green signal for the metro rail as the project is expected to provide a good momentum to the overall development of infrastructure. This, in turn, will provide a necessary recharge to the property outlook in the city, they say.

All the same, the work will pose difficulties to people if the government, in association with local bodies, does not develop some of the connecting roads to the arterial roads of Kochi to help ease the traffic flow.

While Sahodaran Ayyappan Road requires repair, parallel roads on either side need to be developed. Similarly, other roads to Thripunithura, entry from the Maradu side and the Vyttila-Kaniyampuzha roads need to be strengthened to lessen the traffic on the main road.

If the work on Pulleppady overbridge gets done, one of the major roads connecting the city to the highway will become open, lessening the traffic on the metro route that will ring the city from north to south.

The construction of metro rail will be a challenge as the size of the existing roads, already congested, will be further reduced. Hence, it is important that the government does the spadework to prepare for a bigger project such as the metro.
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