Vadodara (Baroda) discussions and general news

[GJ10]

As the title says, for anything Baroda related that doesnt need to be in the Projects thread, such as:

• News stories about Baroda
• Discussions about Baroda economy/industry/politics

In the future, like with Ahmedabad and Surat, if ppl actually living in Vadodara can come forward to contribute good quality updates, we can work towards having a separate section for Vadodara too.

Also, while at proposal stage, best to discuss things like Metro/BRTS here and then have dedicated threads if there is any progress at ground level.

But thats enough of the serious stuff, enjoy posting and lets try and showcase Vadodara as well as we can.

[bhatia 19]

http://youtu.be/lu3tezmzNPQ

[bhatia 19]

http://youtu.be/8laGp3RGvlw

[bhatia 19]

http://youtu.be/mub0Fdw7BGw

[TheOptimist]

wow!! Great news for Barodians

Barcelona to train Vadodara’s wannabe Messi's

VADODARA: Young footballers dreaming to dribble like Lionel Messi are in for a treat. They will get to learn the nuances of soccer from none other than the Spanish soccer club FC Barcelona.

FC Barcelona, which has produced stars like Messi and Ronaldinho, is now hunting for talent in the country. And, it has selected Vadodara to organize a five-day camp in November to identify and groom aspiring football players.

"Vadodara is the only place that has quality infrastructure, including four to five football grounds, making it an obvious choice for us. Also, Vadodara has far more football following than even bigger cities like Ahmedabad," said Antoni Claveria, technical director-FCBEscola India.

"A lot of aspiring footballers from the city are eagerly waiting for the launch of FCBEscola and the credit for it goes to Barcelona players like Messi who are product of FCB's youth development plan," Antoni, who will train the youngsters, told TOI.

The camp, to be held in association with Conscient Football, will be open for youngsters in the age group of 6 to 17 years.

"The scientifically developed training programme would be divided into introduction, pre-training and training sections. We will observe and identify trainees with potential to become professional footballer," Antoni added.

The camp will be held at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavans School from November 16 to 20 in the age groups of U-8, U-10, U-12, U-14 and U-17.

According to Antoni, potential players will be then taken to FCBEscola that will be set up in New Delhi by the year end for further training. "And, if they show promise, they may even travel to Barcelona," he added.

[vadodra007]

Any discussions/updates on the BRTS plans? It does appear, going by Amdavad's struggles to extend BRTS to Kalupur that alternative to BRTS such as elevated light rail be considered.

Seems like a corridor from Station/MSU along SSG, Kothi to Mandavi might be workable. It might look a bit ugly but currently with the crazy traffic things aren't any better. Perhaps, another circular route from Chokandhi, panigate, Nyaymandir can be complementary to the other route.

[29A]

Hey guys!! posting after a VERY loooong time (maybe 6-7 years) but it is good to be back!

@vadodra007 I do not think that the roads in our beloved city are wide enough. Forget Nyay Mandir / panigate altogether, we do not even have enough space to walk there. (unless the encroachers are dealt with). I used to stay in Raopura before I moved out of the country entirely

[vadodra007]

@29A:

I concur with your view on road width; I was therefore thinking an elevated mono-rail the type of which you see at airports. That is certainly doable.

[29A]

@vadodara007

Aah of course, I did not read your entire post. Yes that would be doable. They would look and function exactly like the ones we have in Seattle and I quite like the system. Remember the VUDA circle area? A line can start from Sursagar, go to VUDA circle. Another can branch off to Karelibaug / VIP road. From there it can cut right through the back, stop at Fatehgunj and proceed towards Alkapuri. I think the city is now big enough to warrent such a system.

[vadodra007]

I concur; the city does need to work on enhancing the infrastructure.

[GJ10]

A pretty interesting piece from DG, I often wonder what is the issue with Vadodara. As a Kathiawadi, I wouldnt say its bad for the state if Rajkot overtakes Vadodara in terms of population and economy (as seems likely), but I still am not completely sure how things got to this stage?

In Vadodara, vibrancy is fine, but dream is lacking

For last few years, we regularly receive news about something new, something futuristic taking place in the urban development sector in Ahmedabad and Surat, and sometimes in Rajkot too, and we publish too. And when we publish, our readers from Vadodara would always complain: “What about our city?”

So if we write something about BRTS project taking place in Ahmedabad, Surat or Rajkot, the readers from Vadodara would ask, “What about Vadodara?”

If we publish a story about new swanky airport terminal in Ahmedabad, a reader from Vadodara would ask, “What about Vadodara airport, the work is pending for last many years?”

And it just goes on like this, almost every time.

My today’s visit to Vadodara Chamber of Commerce and Industry(VCCI)’s exhibition ‘Vibrant Vadodara 2013′ at Navlakhi ground, kicked off with some expectations to find at least something on city’s future vision. But I failed to find anything in this regard!

I asked a local businessman friend, “why Vadodara Municipal Corporation(VMC) has not showcased anything about the city here in this exhibition? Why they haven’t demonstrated their vision, some ambitious projects if there are, big panels, graphics, models of ongoing and future developmental works? ”

He replied, “actually, the VMC has actually nothing big to show!”

What I gathered after meeting various local people, was that the city is not dreaming! I mean dreaming is necessary for a city! As I mentioned earlier, this exhibition’s name was ‘Vibrant Vadodara’, and vibrancy is fine, but what about the dreams? What about the future vision?

I mean, “Next is what?” “Next is what?” should continue to buzz like a continuous ring tone in city managers’ minds, and city should dream for its future continuously and should work to achieve it! But in Vadodara this is missing!

Why Vadodara is not matching the speed of Surat or Amdavad when it comes to remarkable and big-sized urban development works?

I found a development plan report of VMC that mentions:

The last two decades i.e. 1981 – 2000 have been a period of general decline for the city. The 1991 – 2000 has seen a decrease in decadal population growth rate from 40.42% in 1981 – 91 to 26.63%. Implying the city is hardly attracting migration to itself. This decrease is primarily due to reduced employment opportunities available in Vadodara. It would also be pertinent to note that both Vadodara and Surat had a population of about 4.67 Lakhs and 4.93 Lakhs in 1971 respectively, in 2001 the population of Surat was 24.33 lakhs and Vadodara has grown only to 13.06 lakhs.

Vadodara is sandwiched between two major growth magnets i.e. Ahmedabad and Surat. Though part of the golden corridor, Vadodara is at a disadvantage in attracting investments, since the only area that it covers is Anand, Panchmahal and Dahod. Also, Vadodara’s hinterland on its east gets constrained due to tribal areas and hilly terrain on the border districts of Madhya Pradesh.

Now this was just a small portion of development plan draft. If you read the entire draft, it thrice describes this city’s geographical location as its weakness.

‘We are sandwiched between Surat and Ahmedabad which limits our development,’ I hear such remark whenever I meet prominent people of Vadodara, and discuss their city with them.

Actually by leveraging the strength of M.S.University, Vadodara could follow Pune model. Mumbai is nearby, but Pune has continued to be in a good position with its unique cultural flavor, and with the presence of IT, Automobile and Education sectors. If in late 1990s we had a good leadership, Vadodara could be a major IT hub in western India, I have no doubt about it! Ahmedabad had no capacity to become Bangalore, but Vadodara had.

Years back, I wrote it in a Gujarati newspaper that setting up the electronics GIDC in Gandhinagar was a mistake of state government( the decisions of 1980s/90s), it could be rather set up near Vadodara.

The city of Vadodara presently enjoys proximity to big industries. There are some really big industries around Vadodara that continue to make the city a happening place. But just that is not enough.

Last week state Revenue minister held a meeting with city administrators of Vadodara to discuss the big projects. Some of them are Vishwamitri riverside developments and BRTS among others. The Vishwamitri river project includes relocation of around 5,000 slums, construction of check dams, renovation of present bridges and crocodile park. Then I saw a night-market project. The VMC is going to start a night market soon in the city. It will have a good number of food stalls!

Coming back to the VCCI exhibition, it was really a good local effort.

I visited a job fair section and met VCCI committee member Mahesh Satlani. He informed that 6600 interviews took place during the exhibition in job fair section, and 1000 of them were shortlisted for job.

One of the eye-catching things for me was a visible and vocal spillover effect of state leadership at city and district level, and further down. So if the state organizes Vibrant Gujarat exhibition, the city organizes Vibrant Vadodara exhibition, if the state sets up Asia’s biggest Charanka solar park, a small-time solar product vendor in his stall showcases a big poster of Charanka solar park to sell his smaller solar products like solar lanterns and street lights, if the state markets its future prospects in connection with the proposed DMIC project, an industrial plot seller too mentions a detailed map of DMIC in his brochure and poster to show importance of his location!

So vibrancy was showcased and witnessed too, but dream? The city has to dream.

Nearby to Vadodara, there are major industrial projects coming up in places like Savli, Halol and Kalol, but the city itself doesnt seem to have as much going on as others do. Although not mentioned in the article, I personally feel that the development of Ankleshwar and Dahej has also taken opportunities away from Vadodara, as much as Ahmedabad or Surat has. Bharuch district is second only to Kutch in terms of incoming investments, that surely has had an impact on Vadodara.

So, what is the way forward for Vadodara? More focus on Educational Institutes? IT/ITeS? Biotech?

And what has caused the low relative growth within Gujarat? Purely competition from other cities/regions? Poor marketing?

[vadodra007]

So the presence of industries such as Indian Oil, Reliance, GSFC has not really benefited Vadodra. Instead, the people who work there, do rely on Vadodra's infrastructure. Both Ahmedabad and Surat have blow by Vadodra with really no hope in catching up.

On the other hand, addition of BRTS on the proposed ring road should be a plus. Eventually, this should be used as a stepping stone to bring in more knowledge based industries who might find the steep price of land in Ahmedabad and Surat a little beyond reach.

[GJ10]

IOC and GSFC set up in Vadodara in the 1960s, there would obv be an impact, but it cant be expected to last forever. Even IPCL which got taken over by Reliance was early 90s, not exactly recent.

Im sure that big companies like Bombardier, General Motors and Hero Motocorp will have invested in Savli, Halol-Kalol partly because these are close to Vadodara, but the real benefit will be to those places, not Vadodara. But thats not really such a bad thing if we want the State to develop, esp with Halol-Kalol in less developed Panchmahals district.

Def agree that its time for knowledge based industries to really take off in Gujarat, and theres no reason why Vadodara shouldnt be seen as a front-runner for that.

[vadodra007]

Don't disagree; it is just that the companies rely on Vadodra's infrastructure but don't contribute in taxes. Yes, if property takes were charged in proportion to the value, this would be.a non-issue ......