Cochin Discussions

[Malayaali]

Steps formulated to conserve Mangalavanam


cc: Mathrubhumi

[mohammedirshad06]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

Steps formulated to conserve Mangalavanam

I consider this as a threat, than a blessing... No doubt, the city requires a Green Lung and Mangalavanam is acting the same. But its not possible to build up a Natural sanctuary for Birds, in heart of the city. Kochi needs economic growth than migatory birds..... Equally, the mashy lands is already a breeding growth for mosquitoes. You need to protect environment doesn't mean, it has to be done in Primitive style and embracing Early Man age.

It should be made into proper ecopark with exotic trees and landscaped facility, so that it gives dual purposes.... Suryavanam near CIAL is a model, rather than trying to encroach Railway and BPCL land and making more primitive and retarding growth of the city.... In anycase, one cannot expect more migatory birds, with Vallarpadam's Panmax Cranes, Naval UAVs and Petronet Chimneys in the vicinity......

[Malayaali]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

Steps formulated to conserve Mangalavanam

Mangalavanam plan submitted

A meeting of the advisory committee on Mangalavanam has decided to submit a proposal to the state government to declare Manga-lavanam and its buffer zone as an ecologically sensitive area. The state government will send the proposal to the union government for follow-up action.

“In the meeting it was decided to submit the proposal to the government as early as possible. A report will be prepared soon with all the necessary documents by officials from the forest department,” said Radhakrishnan, assistant conservator.

The panel meeting held on Monday chaired by Hibi Eden MLA has also decided to bring in regulations to curb construction activities near the bird sanctuary to ensure that the region remains safe.

The vacant land adjacent to Mangalavanam, 10 acres owned by the railways and 22 acres owned by BPCL, will be made part of the bird sanctuary, said Eden.

A team of experts consisting of K. Sukumaran, chief wildlife warden; Nagesh Prabhu, chief forest conservator and V. Gopinath, principal chief conservator visited Mangalavanam on Monday.

The meeting urged the corporation authorities to take steps to divert the drainage channel passing through the bird sanctuary.

The meeting observed that the contaminated water in the pond and pollutants like plastic waste disposed within the sanctuary pose a serious threat to the biodiversity.

In the subcommittee meeting recently convened by forest minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar, various demands like conducting environment conservation campaigns and organising research projects with the participation of the Cochin University of Science and Technology and the Kerala Agriculture Univer-sity were raised, said Eden.

Mayor Tony Chammany, deputy mayor B. Bhadra and town planning committee chairman K.J. Sohan also attended the meeting.

[Malayaali]

Demand on for ‘CA’ series plate

Registration in Ernakulam RTO, which is leading the count in the state, to enter CA series soon. Currently, BU series has been rolled.
The other RTO's following Ekm are:
Thiruvananthapuram: BF
Kozhikode: AL
Thrissur: AX
Malappuram: AK

Looking to buy a new vehicle in Kochi? You had better wait for a few months! A little patience could help you get the awesome ‘CA’ series number plate on your vehicle – for the very first time in Kerala.

And if you’re rich enough to make a top bid, you might even get that fancy KL-7 CA – 1 number.

The city has already sold out the KL-7 BU series.

The officials in the motor vehicle department say that, going at this pace, the ‘CA’ series should be available before October.

With the banks easing the loan clauses, vehicle sales have hit an all-time high in the city, facilitating the early entry of the ‘CA’ series.

It is learnt that several head honchos in the city are getting ready to bid for the magical number.

“Kochi had seen a mad rush when it hit the ‘BA’ series. The same thing may happen with the ‘CA’ series,” predicted T.J. Thomas, the Ernakulam regional transport officer.

[Malayaali]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

Mercedez Benz Star Drive Experience kicks off in Kochi

cc: EISK77

[Malayaali]

cc EISK007

[Malayaali]

Kochi to host National Interventional Council 2012

Kochi - The MICE Destination!

More than 1300 cardiologists from and out of the country will participate in the event.
Event to be held from 27 to 29th of April 2012 at Le Meridien, Kochi


cc: Mathrubhumi

[Malayaali]

City in shortage of 180 million litres of water

At a time when alternatives for pipe water is dwindling by the day, the Kochi city gets less than 60 per cent of its water requirements. As of now, the city needs 430 million litres of water every day. However, the city gets a maximum of 250 litres from its Aluva plant resulting in daily shortage of more 180 million litres. “The pumping capacity of the Aluva plant is 225 million litres of water per day. Currently, it is pumping around 250 litres to cope up with the heavy water shortage. But as per the population in 2011, if every person in the city is to be supplied a fixed amount of 140 litres of water, then the city needs as much as 430 million litres of water.

After the HUDCO water project, there has been no major water supply projects for the city. So our water supply remains static even while the population and the individual demand has been going up,” said G Vanaja, Superintendent Engineer, Kerala Water Authority.

The largest burden of the water scarcity is borne by the tail end areas like Chellanam, Kumbalangi, Cheranaloor, Vennala, Thammanam and other bordering areas of the city. Also, an increase in consumption of water in the central parts of the city has a direct bearing on the water supply in these areas. “Water reaches these areas after passing through the central parts of the city where consumption of water is more than what is relegated to them. Unlike telephone or electricity, in the case of water there is no way to supply uniform quantities. All we can do is to urge people to avoid over-consumption,” said the Superintendent Engineer.

In fact, even the much-hyped Pazhoor drinking water project which is expected to provide 100 million litres of water per day after being materialised, will still leave the city short of 80 million litres of water daily.

[keralite]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

Mercedez Benz Star Drive Experience kicks off in Kochi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOBdfqyZ6Xw

[Malayaali]

Cool! KSRTC drivers vie for AC buses

The KSRTC Ernakulam depot faces a unique problem. A batch of its drivers doesn’t want to be deployed on any buses other than the low-floor AC services, which is affecting other schedules as the corporation is already fighting an acute staff shortage.

The issue has taken on gigantic proportion as three drivers moved court against the mandatory rescheduling of services and staff being changed every six months.

“Before low-floor air-conditioned buses were introduced back in December 2009, a group of 30 willing staff were sent for training in Bengaluru where the Volvo company is based.

Gradually, others drivers are being trained by Volvo experts at the company service centre in Kalamassery.

However, now the first batch insists they should be permanently deployed on the upmarket orange Volvo buses,” a KSRTC official said on the condition of anonymity.

The drivers claim that they should be given seniority when it comes to driving the buses as they were the first batch to be professionally trained, a demand rejected by the management.

“How can we do that? The corporation decides seniority by the total number of years put in by the staff and not on any other basis,” the official said.

With the issue pending before court, the management has for the time being postponed the rotation policy indefinitely.

“It was originally slated to come into effect from last Sunday. Now that three drivers have already moved the court and another three are planning to take the legal route, we don’t want to create a mountain out of a mole hill,” the official said.

There are a total of 377 drivers in the Ernakulam depot out of which nearly 90 have received training on driving the low-floor buses.

With only half the total staff available on a particular shift, officials are worried that services will be affected if the 30-odd drivers continue to “behave indifferently”.

[Malayaali]

Kochi leads all cities in the annual employment Index growth

NGO/Social Services (up 34 per cent) recorded the highest annual growth among sectors according to the Monster Employment Index March 2012 with 24 of the 27 industry sectors monitored registering expansion in recruitment activity between March'11 and March'12.

Index level rose five per cent from a year ago in March.

Import/export (up 20 per cent), agro-based industries (up 14 per cent), home appliances(up 13 per cent),office equipment/ automation(up 13 per cent)sectors maintained an upward trend in online recruiting or posting between March '11 and March'12.

Senior management(up 17 per cent) is the only group to record sequential month-on-month growth starting December 2011. The group led all occupation groups in long-term growth followed by arts/creative (up 14 per cent).

Marketing & communication (down 5 per cent) andHR & administration (down 5 per cent) exhibited the steepest annual decline among occupation groups

In terms of geographic year-over-year trends, Kochi (up 23 per cent) followed by Coimbatore (up 15 per cent) led all cities in annual growth. Among major metro-areas, Bangalore (up 5 per cent) and Delhi- NCR (up one per cent) registered positive annual growth. Ahmedabad(down 5 per cent)was amidst the slowest growth markets.

[Malayaali]

Good response for 3rd edition of Mercedez Benz Star Drive Experience

The event which commenced in Kochi will travel to Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Chandigarh finally ending at Mumbai.

Merc AMG series SL 63, G55, C 63 cars were used for the event.


cc: Mathrubhumi

[Malayaali]

[KMC]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

Kochi leads all cities in the annual employment Index growth

waww , thats a good news indeed.....

[Malayaali]

[Malayaali]

Marine Drive: GCDA Evicts Petty Shop Owners

Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) has evicted petty shops near the Marine Drive walkway. The GCDA authorities said that the land would be utilised only for the purpose of parking. While the petty shop owners allege that they were evicted illegally, the GCDA authorities say that shops were evicted as the land was being misused.

“A contractor can collect fees for parking only. He cannot allot the space for those who run business by parking four-wheeler trolleys,” GCDA chairman N Venugopal said. He also said that selling tea, snacks and other edible stuff has caused pollution in the area. “Waste such as water bottles, paper cups and rotten fruits from these shops was piling up there and I have been getting numerous e-mails seeking action against this,” he added.

However, the shop owners say that they were allotted space for parking trolleys after they paid an amount by way of rent advance to the contractor. “The contractor who won the bid to collect parking fee was collecting `30 per day from us as rent,” said Kuttan, a vendor who was running a shop there.
According to him, the attempt by certain vendors to occupy space more than allotted to them resulted in the eviction of all. “Recently, some vendors brought additional vehicles, but they were not ready to pay the rent for the additional space which they occupied. This resulted in a total eviction,” Kuttan said. The evicted vendors also said that the affected will be the ones who run only one shop for livelihood. “There are people who own more than one shop. They will not suffer even if they are displaced from here as they have other means of income,” Kuttan added.

Meanwhile, the GCDA chairman said that people had set up shops on GCDA’s land at many places. “Running petty shops has become a major business. It has come to our notice that there are people who own more than 20 petty shops and wayside eateries at different locations. Action will be taken against them soon,” Venugopal said.

He also said that GCDA has identified 40 cents of land near Marine Drive for setting up open-air restaurants. “This area will be developed along with work of extension of Marine Drive,” Venugopal said.

[Malayaali]

Some Funny posts from Kochi

courtesy: Kochi Tips

[Malayaali]

XD Max ride at Wonderla Kochi


cc: Manorama

[Malayaali]

DEL

[kochiboomz]

congrats to all the contributors. now the forum has begun to look lively and vibrant, like our city.