TN Cities - Coimbatore (Kovai)
Coimbatore (Kovai for short) is the second largest city / Metro in Tamil Nadu. A city with 1.5 million population, it is also one of the faster growing cities in TN. The name Coimbatore always conjures up images of textile mills and industries in my mind. It is also one city that looks urban/cityish after Chennai in TN. It is not a city assosciated much with Tamil / Tamilnadu (Politically). Inspite of it being the second most important city economically and commercially, it is a relatively political lightweight, maybe because it is situated in one corner of TN.
Unlike Madurai, Trichy or Thanjavur, Kovai does not have much history behind it. It is a relatively new city which came into prominence because of the entrepreneurial nature of its citizens ably helped by the various hydel power projects in neighboring Nilgiris district. Kovai is the centre for Textile and textile machinery, foundries, auto components,wet grinders, pumps and many small scale engineering units. The industrial output from Coimbatore is said to be over 10,000 crores* annually. Much, if not all of this development should be attributed to the local people and a few visionaries as this growth was achieved purely by the them with very little governmental support (in terms of PSU or institutions) or any large scale factory.
Kovai is also poised to enter the IT map as a second tier city in TN. With a pleasant climate and a huge manpower availability in its catchment area, it has everything going for it to become a major player in IT. Unfortunately so far, there's been no real catalyst for growth here. Recently CTS has entered the city in a small way with TCS and Wipro likely to join soon. Hopefully, this will kickstart the industry here and help Kovai retains its second place in TN economy.
Kovai is also an affluent place. It matches Chennai per capita in consumtion of most consumer items including luxury cars and cellphones. The real estate costs are highest after Chennai. Coimbatore was talked of as the next Pune/Hyderabad in the early nineties, but for the serial bomb blasts, it might have happened. That incident pushed the growth down, affected the morale and subdued this growing city. It has largely returned to normal and just needs a spark to come back to the growth trajectory. IMHO, an IT park like Tidel is what the city needs now.
There's not much for a tourist in the city. It just acts as a wayside stop for the tourists going towards Ooty, Valpari etc. A couple of temples - Perur and Maruthamalai are the major highlights here, but the city is sorrounded by a lot of important tourist spots that can be reached in an hour or two. Ooty (Nilgiris), Valparai, as mentioned earlier, APA, Siruvani and Malampuzha dams, IndiraGandhi WIld life sanctuary, Black Thunder water park are some the more famous ones.
Some of my suggestions for improving the city would be to
Routine and more information about the city can be had from
wikipedia
www.coimbatore.com and other Google searches.
Unlike Madurai, Trichy or Thanjavur, Kovai does not have much history behind it. It is a relatively new city which came into prominence because of the entrepreneurial nature of its citizens ably helped by the various hydel power projects in neighboring Nilgiris district. Kovai is the centre for Textile and textile machinery, foundries, auto components,wet grinders, pumps and many small scale engineering units. The industrial output from Coimbatore is said to be over 10,000 crores* annually. Much, if not all of this development should be attributed to the local people and a few visionaries as this growth was achieved purely by the them with very little governmental support (in terms of PSU or institutions) or any large scale factory.
Kovai is also poised to enter the IT map as a second tier city in TN. With a pleasant climate and a huge manpower availability in its catchment area, it has everything going for it to become a major player in IT. Unfortunately so far, there's been no real catalyst for growth here. Recently CTS has entered the city in a small way with TCS and Wipro likely to join soon. Hopefully, this will kickstart the industry here and help Kovai retains its second place in TN economy.
Kovai is also an affluent place. It matches Chennai per capita in consumtion of most consumer items including luxury cars and cellphones. The real estate costs are highest after Chennai. Coimbatore was talked of as the next Pune/Hyderabad in the early nineties, but for the serial bomb blasts, it might have happened. That incident pushed the growth down, affected the morale and subdued this growing city. It has largely returned to normal and just needs a spark to come back to the growth trajectory. IMHO, an IT park like Tidel is what the city needs now.
There's not much for a tourist in the city. It just acts as a wayside stop for the tourists going towards Ooty, Valpari etc. A couple of temples - Perur and Maruthamalai are the major highlights here, but the city is sorrounded by a lot of important tourist spots that can be reached in an hour or two. Ooty (Nilgiris), Valparai, as mentioned earlier, APA, Siruvani and Malampuzha dams, IndiraGandhi WIld life sanctuary, Black Thunder water park are some the more famous ones.
Some of my suggestions for improving the city would be to
- Plan for a metro/mass transit railway system now itself
- A CMDA like authority for Kovai.
- A comprehensive urbanisation plan that includes the sorrounding cities like Tiruppur, Pollachi, Mettupalayam with freeway / GQ like highways linking the towns
- Promote IT in a big way. Build Tidel sized park even if not sure whether people will come. Like in China, they will come when you give them facilities
- A lot more highrises
- A bigger airport
- The city needs a landmark like Meenakshi temple in Madurai or Rockfort in Trichy that can be identified with the city. Somebody build something soon.
Routine and more information about the city can be had from
wikipedia
www.coimbatore.com and other Google searches.
posted by SLN @ 12:15 PM
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