A Megapolis In The Making

It's a prospect that suddenly can't be dismissed. A decade from now, this languid city, with enchanting backwaters and pristine natural splendours, could be a booming megapolis, perhaps even an information technology (IT) hub, its central business district linked by a Sky Bus.

Indeed, prime minister A B Vajpayee said after inaugurating the recent Global Investors' Meet (GIM): "In the near future, Kochi will create the same business buzz nationally and globally as Bangalore and Hyderabad have done in recent years."

Sure, at the moment Kochi's beaches are less than spick and span, its waste disposal facilities are poor, parking space is hard to find, the narrow roads are potholed, traffic snarls are all too common and the poorly built roadside drains result in water logging and flooding during the monsoons.

 

The city is home to shipping, companies, stevedores and companies that operate in the IT, tourism, commodities trading and export arenas.

As elsewhere in Kerala, it is dotted by six top-notch multi-specialty private hospitals. To be sure, Kochi has been spreading northwest, towards a big industrial estate on the Alwaye side, where Binani Zinc, Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore and so on have plants.

More recently, it has expanded south-west, towards Thripunithura and Kottayam. But expansion has been haphazard and largely unplanned.

Yet the Queen of the Arabian Sea just might finally live up to its name. Some of the memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed at the recent GIM for 95 projects worth Rs 11,151 crore were for IT projects -- and a substantial number of them, along with other ventures, are to come up in Kochi.

Consider:

The US-based Sutherland group has decided to invest $ 15 million in a business process outsourcing (BPO) service delivery centre in Kochi. It will generate over 2,500 jobs.

BPO company Transworks has signed an expression of interest to set up a call centre at Kochi.

Two Thai companies propose to set up multimedia and web-based services at Kochi-based Kerala Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) park at a total investment of Rs 15 crore.

The Seoul-based Changwoo Corporation has signed an MoU with Kinfra to set up a Rs 100 crore ship repair facility at Puthvype.

Korea's Sigma Corporation has signed an agreement with Kinfra to relocate its Rs 100-crore business to Kochi.

A Rs 2,000 crore Container transhipment terminal at Vallarpadam, work on which starts in May.

The Ahmedabad-based City Gold Entertainment Ltd has signed an MoU to set up three family entertainment centres, one of them in Kochi. The Abu Dhabi-based EFC group too is setting up a family entertainment centre in Kochi

The Leela group of hotels has announced plans to set up a Rs 14 crore garment unit at the Kinfra export promotion zone, at Kakkanad on Kochi's outskirts. This will employ over 2,000 workers. Other projects heading Kochi's way include Nirmal Agro's Rs 31-crore pineapple processing unit, Indroyal Crafts' Rs 5 crore handicrafts unit, an investment of Rs 11.5 crore in Kinfra Park by Geo group of companies, UAE, a hotel and a flight kitchen service at the Kochi International Airport, Nedumbassery. an air taxi services project, and a Rs 150 crore a satellite township project. Topping all of this, of course, is a Rs 2,600 crore, 10-year plan to expand and modernise the public sector Kochi Refineries Ltd (KRL).

Then there's Konkan Railway's Sky Bus project, to transport up to 20,000 passengers (and cargo) at 100 km an hour).

Though no MoU has been signed for the project, almost 38 companies have expressed interest in it. All this holds out the prospect of Kochi becoming a megapolis 10-20 years down the road.

Says Venkatesh Naidoo, president of the Cochin Chamber of Commerce: "Kochi can be one of the top 10 cities in India within the next 20 years if these MoUs really translate into concrete projects and they are supported by bold reforms-oriented action by the government."

Yet the city's town planners are less than gung ho about that prospect. Says one: "Kochi has the potential to emerge as one of fastest growing cities. But for that to happen, planned development has to be undertaken, and problems like traffic congestion and the mosquito menace need to be addressed on a war footing."

But the Kochi municipal corporation is virtually broke. Three quarters of its tax revenue is spent on salaries.

It hasn't paid many contractors for work done more than a year ago, according to a corporation official.

Asks he: "How can all these problems be resolved without the Kochi Corporation having the requisite financial resources?" That's a question the state's ruling politicians can ignore only at Kochi's peril.