Chennai discussions II

[nonamio]

Originally Posted by kannan infratech

I have noticed a few times when they were actually doing these drawings on the wall. Many of them were amazing artists. They were all dependent on Cinema posters & cut outs, it seems. After the complete BAN on these, they have been jobless. Such talents are being wasted. Poor Guys !

So there wont be any movie posters, politician cutouts in public walls ? i think i have seen CM cutouts in some pics (couldn't remember the road name)

[bonoslack7]

Cognizant - Ramanujan IT SEZ - 600,000 sqft
Verizon - RMZ Millenia - 200,000 sqft
Accenture - Shriram Gateway - 140,000 sqft
Bank of America - Ascendas - 140,000 sqft
Alcatel-Lucent - TVH Agnito - 122,000 sqft
Zoho - DLF IT Park - 75,000 sqft
L&T IES - DLF IT Park - 71,000 sqft
Helios & Matheson - Sathak Trust Building - 64,000 sqft
Virtusa - DLF IT Park - 55,000 sqft
Mphasis - DLF IT Park - 42,000 sqft
Chrysler - RMZ Millenia - 41,000 sqft
Shriram Group - Independent Building/Santhome - 35,000 sqft
Olam Technologies - Ascendas - 28,000 sqft
Tata Steel - Rani Tower - 20,700 sqft
Take Solutions - Nesal House/T.Nagar - 16,500 sqft
Capricorn Logistics - O Square/Guindy - 12,000 sqft

[Raji7373]

Originally Posted by bonoslack7

Verizon - RMZ Millenia - 200,000 sqft

Is Verizon expanding..

They already have a 7 / 9 floor office in Olympia tech park...

[Raji7373]

Originally Posted by murlee

What is this national Spot exchange thing???

http://www.nationalspotexchange.com/abt_us.htm

[bonoslack7]

Originally Posted by Raji7373

Is Verizon expanding..

They already have a 7 / 9 floor office in Olympia tech park...

dunno....but they have major operations here as most of their communication cables/networks lead to Chennai.

[R2IChennai]

Originally Posted by bonoslack7

Cognizant - Ramanujan IT SEZ - 600,000 sqft
Verizon - RMZ Millenia - 200,000 sqft
Accenture - Shriram Gateway - 140,000 sqft
Bank of America - Ascendas - 140,000 sqft
Alcatel-Lucent - TVH Agnito - 122,000 sqft
Zoho - DLF IT Park - 75,000 sqft
L&T IES - DLF IT Park - 71,000 sqft
Helios & Matheson - Sathak Trust Building - 64,000 sqft
Virtusa - DLF IT Park - 55,000 sqft
Mphasis - DLF IT Park - 42,000 sqft
Chrysler - RMZ Millenia - 41,000 sqft
Shriram Group - Independent Building/Santhome - 35,000 sqft
Olam Technologies - Ascendas - 28,000 sqft
Tata Steel - Rani Tower - 20,700 sqft
Take Solutions - Nesal House/T.Nagar - 16,500 sqft
Capricorn Logistics - O Square/Guindy - 12,000 sqft

src please, earlier cushman wakefield calculated only .54 million sq feet in IT where as here CTS itself has taken 600k
What about campus expansion? is it covered by any RE company?

[bonoslack7]

maybe mr. cushman doesn't like cognizant, so he left it....or maybe because the ramanujan it sez isn't ready yet.

Expansion is also included.

[bonoslack7]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...cle2308958.ece

Junction boxes and garbage bins will be allotted proper space

The Highways Department is formulating guidelines for creating model footpaths on arterials roads in the city under its control, including Jawaharlal Nehru Salai, popularly known as 100 Feet Road and Anna Salai.

The focus of the exercise is to ensure that utilities such as junction boxes, garbage bins and streetlights are allotted proper space to make the pavements safe and comfortable for pedestrians.

“Due to various obstructions, on most of our pavements people in the city, unlike in other countries, are unable to walk freely. But with these rules in place, everything will have a place and pedestrians will be able to walk without any breaks,” a Highways department official said.

Raj Cherubal of Chennai City Connect, said using the existing carriageway and available space, it would be possible to create comfortable pedestrian and vehicular space.

“The CMDA's Second Master Plan says that 40 per cent of road space on major arterial roads is not being used because of pedestrians walking on the carriageway and spill-over parking. So, if footpaths and roads are planned, we could get more space. Cities such as Hong Kong and Shanghai have taken roads that were in conditions similar to ours and rebuilt them according to standards.”

In Chennai, as many platforms are not laid properly, most often pedestrians use the road. According to Indian Roads Congress Standards, a 1.5 metre wide footpath could carry 1,500 pedestrians/hour walking in the same direction, and 800 pedestrians/hour in both directions.

T.Anantharajan, former professor of Urban Engineering, Anna University, said footpaths were very important for the free flow of traffic. “We must remember that vehicle users too are pedestrians once their car is parked. In most places, there are no sidewalks and in places where there are sidewalks, we place garbage bins there.”

In urban areas, footpaths must be at least one metre wide. If trees are planted, the footpaths must be two metres wide and if hawkers are to be accommodated, the facilities must be 3 metres wide.

Mr. Anantharajan said that with different transportation systems such as BRTS, Metro Rail and Monorail coming up, detailed area-wide planning for parking, pedestrians, cyclists and motorists is a must. Various agencies including the CMDA, Highways, Chennai Corporation, Metrorail and Police must sit together and plan, he suggested.

[Indian Sun]

Guidelines only no ? Not the actual footpaths themselves. Ok. :

[Raji7373]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...postcount=9512

[Raji7373]

Nandanam does a ‘Chipko’ to save trees

Chennai: Residents of Nandanam Extension 1st Street re-enacted the ‘Chipko movement’ on Saturday, when the Chennai Corporation authorities came to chop down trees in the neighbourhood to make way for stormwater drains.
In the 1970s and 80s, organized resistance to the destruction of forests spread throughout India came to be known as the Chipko movement.
A 40-year-old woman, S Sumathi, grabbed the ropes the tree cutters had brought to pull down the trees. Throwing the ropes around her waist and neck, she challenged the corporation workers to go ahead. “The corporation officials didn’t know how to react. They started abusing me verbally,” said Sumathi, who lives in an apartment behind the tree. Corporation officials had orders to bring down five trees, which residents said were 50 to 60 years old.
After inspection, the officials said only three would have to be axed as the drains could take minor diversions to save two trees. But residents insisted that none of the trees should be cut.
“Why can’t the engineers make a small curve of the drains to go around the trees like they did for the other trees?” said Ravi Ganapathi, another resident who works with a construction company.
This is the second time the residents have come together to persuade the corporation to look at alternatives to cutting trees. Officials from the corporation said they had exhausted all options before deciding to chop the trees. “There is a sewer line running parallel to the stormwater drain and there is no way we can have a deviation,” said the assistant executive engineer of ward 116 on condition of anonymity.
The officials are also vexed that the project is getting unnecessarily delayed. They said that drains have been laid for 240 metres of the total 255 metres on Nandanam Avenue 1st street. “We can complete the works in a week if we are allowed to work,” said the engineer.
Nandanam will get 2,500 metres of stormwater drains and the works are expected to be completed by September before the arrival of the northeast monsoon to prevent flooding in low-lying areas. The Corporation plans to dig up 30 major roads for the construction of stormwater drains.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily...efault&pub=TOI

[bonoslack7]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1ad2e...#axzz1ThYBhhqx

The New York Stock Exchange left an indelible stamp on Madhu Kannan.

It was there that the 38-year-old chief executive of the Bombay Stock Exchange cut his teeth in the late 1990s, and where later he fell under the spell of John Thain, former CEO of the NYSE. Few close to him fail to notice the influence of “Superman” – as Mr Thain was known for his facial resemblance to Clark Kent – on his professional life.

For the young south Indian executive from a modest family, Mr Thain was close to a father figure who took him under his protective wings from the first days he joined the exchange. To this day, Mr Kannan’s loyalty for his mentor is unaffected, even after Mr Thain’s image was tarnished amid revelations that he had spent $1.2m to refurbish his office at Merrill Lynch, where they both moved in 2008.

When Mr Kannan returned to India to take up his role as the youngest head of any major bourse two years ago, he had plenty of battles ahead of him to resurrect a tired brand and modernise an exchange that more closely resembled a gentlemen’s club than the throbbing heart of one of the world’s biggest emerging markets. “A 136-year old start-up” is how he describes the BSE.

Dalal Street, as India’s oldest exchange is known in Mumbai, is a world away from Wall Street. Mr Kannan has a cramped glass office in a hulking tower block exchange. Outside his office are a deck of vacant work stations. From here, together with three lieutenants, he has set about the Herculean task of reasserting the reputation of Asia’s oldest bourse.

The boyish looking executive, who appears slightly uncomfortable in an oversized dark suit, is good natured, fidgety and fast-talking. While he has the restless energy of a New York trader – he joined the NYSE in 1997, rising to the post of senior vice-president before following Mr Thain to Bank of America Merrill Lynch as managing director of strategy and business development – his story is distinctly Indian.

Mr Kannan grew up in Tamil Nadu, in the south of India. His family, who invested heavily in his education, had ambitions for him to be an engineer. But he had other ideas. Excited by the ideals of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and with a head for statistics (especially of the cricketing kind), he hankered after a career in development or economic policy. “I made it a point to keep my parents happy by getting the engineering degree they always wanted, but at the same time I fostered my own personal interests,” he says.

He won a place at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, Rajasthan, and graduated in 1995 as an engineer, a calling that, along with the medical profession, has traditionally ranked as the most prestigious in India.

Tata Consultancy Services offered him a job as a software engineer. He turned it down. “I had been a good son and did what my parents wanted me to do. After I got my engineering degree, I decided it was time for me to go my own way,” he says.

That “way” led him to an MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a career in US financial markets. The fallout in New York during the financial crisis persuaded him and his wife, a former south Indian tennis champion, to return home.

The BSE had hit hard times. Outflanked by more technologically aggressive rivals such as the National Stock Exchange, it had been slow to expand beyond cash equity trades to derivatives, options and currency trading. Its members were a tight-knit bunch with little interest in the ability of electronic systems to capture rising incomes among a younger profile of investor.

As well as having one of India’s best known financial brands – Sensex, the BSE’s benchmark index of the top 30 stocks – the exchange’s building in downtown Mumbai is one of the most recognised in India. A million people visit the BSE website every day.

However, since the early 1990s, when India’s economy opened up, the institution started losing relevance and volumes in a liberalised market. The leadership deficit was blatant: Mr Kannan’s job had been vacant for nine months before he was recruited to do it.

“It’s easy to create something on a blank piece of paper but difficult to put it on a legacy infrastructure,” he says, reflecting on his efforts to transform the BSE. “Anything that you change is harder to change if there’s always the legacy. There’s lots of baggage to clean up.”

He says his priorities are “technology, innovation, access and a strong service mindset”, but insists that it all boils down to “technology, technology, technology”.

Technology represents up to 40 per cent of the exchange’s spending. His team devotes a lot of time to persuading regulators of the benefit of internet-based 2G mobile phone trading services and offering the fastest possible execution times to brokers across India. Further out, it plans to launch an exchange for smaller companies.

Another significant move was to shake up the board and convince the well-connected S. Ramodorai, a fellow south Indian and the former chairman of TCS, India’s largest outsourcing group, to join the BSE as chairman. “We’ve made a lot of progress on [the] management front,” Mr Kannan says. “We have a board that can help take the organisation to where it must go.”

Mr Kannan also lowered the cost for investors to trade on the exchange, a move aimed at increasing trading volumes by opening the bourse to investors for whom it would previously have been off-limits. “There was a club mentality. The Nike store does not charge you to come in to buy shoes,” he says.

His mission is to extend trading across multiple asset classes, including derivatives, options, currency and power and encourage the participation of mutual funds, pension funds and insurance companies. The result, he hopes, will be to boost the number of Indian stock market investors from the current 1 per cent of the country’s 1.2bn population. “For someone in a rural area like my father in Vellore, the concept is that the BSE is somewhere far away. I want it to become nearer,” he says.

The engineer in Mr Kannan stands out. The technocratic training is clearly an advantage in a fast-changing market all about cutting execution times, building efficiencies with the minimum human intervention and using technology to enable mass participation across Indian cities. By contrast, Ravi Narain at the NSE is a Cambridge-educated economist.

Mr Thain was remembered as a chief executive who wrought more changes to the NYSE in his three-year tenure than had taken place in the previous 211.

Mr Kannan would like a similar modernising legacy. Two years in, he has made a difference but the revolution is yet to come.

[bonoslack7]

Indian sun, is madhu kannan in the above article related to you?

[Indian Sun]

I wish

Looks like he's a BITS-Pilani alumnus too.

[ChennaiIndian]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/9427868.cms

CHENNAI: After queuing up to learn Japanese, Chinese and German, some Chennaiites are now trying to catch up with a language closer home-Malayalam. The Kerala government's Malayalam Mission-an avenue for children of Malayalees outside Kerala to learn their mother tongue - has found takers among Tamils too.

S Rajagopalan, a 42-year-old customs officer whose mother tongue is Tamil is among those who want to learn the language. The programme, to be launched in the city on Sunday will open 150 training centres in different parts of the city. Malayalee housewives in Chennai would be teaching the language with a prescribed format. Students of basics will be given a certificate after the course spread over 40 sessions. The programme also includes higher levels of Malayalam study.

"I speak a little bit of Telugu and Kannada, and would like to pick up Malayalam" says Rajagopalan, who has many Malayalee friends. While it is the desire to converse in many languages that attracted Rajagopalan to Malayalam Mission, 45-year-old Viswanatha Iyer, a resident of Puzhuthivakkam, has business reasons to take the course.

...

[ceeznic pirate]

Running out of room

The latest census figures reveal that the population density of Chennai has touched an all-time high and it ranks close to that of New Delhi. This is a wake-up call for the government of Tamil Nadu to undertake some serious long-term urban planning. In terms of urban dwelling density, New Delhi, with 29,463 dwellers per sq km, stands first, followed by Chennai at 26,093 dwellers. When compared to other large metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, which have 20,000 to 24,000 people living per sq km, respectively, the density of smaller-sized Chennai is alarmingly high. Chennai registered a 13.30% jump in urban population at 46.80 lakh people as per the recent census.

While the population has been steadily going up, the city has never expanded its boundary in the last 30 to 35 years, which stands at 173 sq km. According to a political observer, the expansion of the city has always been mired in parochial political considerations. The expansion of Chennai from 173 sq km to approximate 436 sq km, including the peri-urban suburbs like Ambattur, Tambaram and Tiruvottiyur, should have been accomplished during the previous DMK regime.

The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), an ally of the DMK, opposed the suburb merger plan, arguing that local body representative numbers would drastically get reduced from 800 to 200, with nearly 600 local body corporator positions being abolished if the city is widened by merging the adjoining areas with Chennai. Responding to the plea of its ally, the DMK deferred the delimitation with the setting up of a committee to review the process, apparently losing time and tenure in implementing the expansion plan. Ranganayakalu, the former planner of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), says that city planning has been a joke in the hands of political leadership that has no long-term development vision for the city.

CMDA, an apex planning body set up by the government, is vested with the mandate of conceiving long-term development plans for Chennai, including development regulation of residential layouts and commercial layouts. Ranganayakalu adds: “Having closely worked with the various state governments of Tamil Nadu, the firm conviction I could reach is that our political leadership is only concerned about politically popular projects that are possible during their 5-year ruling period. We have witnessed many project casualties due to the myopic approach of the government in city planning. The Dravidian parties, both when they are in the opposition or when they are ruling, have just sparred to veto each other’s policies on urban planning, not taking into consideration the city’s welfare. A case in point is the Kotturpuram housing board layout, close to the Adyar river, opposed vehemently by CMDA, which the government of the day went ahead and pursued. During hyper monsoon years, flash floods ravage the layout, marooning the residents. As per development control rules, no housing activity should be allowed so close to a water body. Now the people there are paying the price for political ad hocism.”

The former city planner recounts bitter memories of his service days as the urban planner with the government. Each and every urban project is subject to partisan political reviews with parties snooping around for scams and scandals rather than deciding on what is good for the public. The entire city expansion plan should be devoid of political wrangling, leaving the job to be done by experts, he says.

K Ramadoss, North Chennai district president of ExNoRa that fights for better urban amenities, wants special attention on North Chennai development. “North Chennai infrastructure, built during the colonial days, has not been upgraded at all. The population has exploded and services like water, sewerage and garbage management have not been scaled up to the current population levels, similar to what is seen in South Chennai. And non-functioning of sewerage pumping stations has led to sewerage outfall into water bodies, causing pollution and contamination.

MG Devasahayam, a former civil servant and founder-trustee of the citizen alliance for sustainable development, makes a doomsday prediction on the haphazard expansion of the city. “The government of the day is neither willing to listen to the bureaucrats nor to the non-government expert civic groups. On the one hand, the population of the city is increasing by leaps and bounds and, on the other, the city is struggling hard to meet the needs of the growing numbers. The panchayat and local body elected members do not enjoy a great degree of power in policy decisions.” Devasahayam adds that the city mayor himself is a mere handmaiden to the entire urban administration of the city. He also claims that Tamil Nadu is one notorious state in the country where true devolution of power has not happened from state legislative to local bodies. The state has not fully empowered the Panchayati Raj Institutions as per the spirit of the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution. There is no decentralised planning which would involve the devolving of financial and administrative powers to cities, towns, village panchayats etc at the grass root level.

Sounding an optimistic note, Chennai Mayor M Subramanian, who comes from the DMK, says that city expansion would greatly reduce population density. “There are about 9 municipalities, 8 town panchayats and 25 village panchayats that are set to merge with Chennai. The DMK, when in power, had submitted a R3,871 crore proposal to upgrade the facilities in the expanded city. If our government had been at the helm, we would have covered greater Chennai with metro rail having a 300-km radius providing rail connectivity to all the newly annexed areas,” he says. Will the new regime take Chennai development seriously?

Source

[Marathaman]

I hope Mods won't mind me posting this here, since it is related to Chennai:

[ranga]

Why tourists think autorickshaw drivers take them for a ride
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...cle2312722.ece

Finding a tourist-friendly autorickshaw is a matter of luck. A driver of one such vehicle helping a tourist from Oman find his way around the city is a rare thing.
When Younis Ahmed, a tourist from Muscat, landed in the city for the first time a couple of days ago, the first person he spoke with was an autorickshaw driver. The experience was far from pleasant.

He was charged Rs.400 for a journey from the airport to a hotel in the Thousand Lights area. “Tourists like me are suffering a lot,” he says.

After being repeatedly fleeced, he finally found a tourist-friendly autorickshaw driver who helped him buy a SIM card, book a local flight and even suggested the best restaurants in the city.

But out of the 55,000-odd autorickshaws in the city, the number of tourist-friendly autorickshaws is only 113. Finding one during the course of a few days of stay is a matter of luck.

“If autorickshaw drivers fleece us like this, we will never come back,” Mr. Ahmed says. “The autorickshaw is an enduring image of any Indian city. Drivers need to be given formal training in dealing with tourists. The government must also seriously consider fixing a ceiling on the maximum fare that can be charged,” he adds.

Due to the lack of information booklets on bus routes and unreliability of public transport services, most tourists have no option but to engage a cab or an autorickshaw.

Anyone, who is fair-skinned or looks like an “outsider,” is targeted, says Goutam Mitra from Kolkata, who has come to the city on vacations several times. Some tourists also complain about being forced to pay an advance of Rs.800 to Rs.1,000 just for a one-hour ride around the city by autorickshaws.

“Ideally, every autorickshaw must be tourist-friendly. Even residents of the city deserve better service,” says S.Purushothaman, coordinator of the 113 tourist-friendly autorickshaws in the city.

He says Chennai must start following the example of Delhi where autorickshaw drivers who have been certified for good behaviour after undergoing training are given vehicle stickers. “Special permission must also be given for parking tourist-friendly autorickshaws near the Egmore museum, Fort St. George and Kapaleeswarar Temple,” Mr. Purushothaman adds.

He says there are also serious problems with regard to bus services and pedestrian walkways.

“Contrary to what people think, nearly 80 per cent of the tourists belong to the low-budget category. Some have backpacks as heavy as 25 kg and there is just no space to walk on the road. Also, airport authorities must give exemption to at least tourist-friendly autorickshaws to enter the airport premises so that visitors to the city are not forced to walk for nearly two km with their luggage.”

After pleasant experience in the state capital of a neighbouring state the tourists face bitter experience with the auto fellows in chennai.Why Govt after Govt in the state become impotent as far as this issue is concerned?This has been happening for decades with no end in view.

[Indian Sun]

Here is an exception. We need more like him.

Anyway yesterday I had an exchange with an auto driver.

Me: "T. Nagar poganum. Bazullah Road."

Auto: "Vaanga, sir"

Me: "Evalo ?"

Auto: "150 kudunga"

Me: "Auto vela kekkala"

*He drives away*

[kannan infratech]

One of my friends from Haryana (Jat) visited us last week. He took an auto from central after fixing Rs.150 for Central to Adyar KB Nagar. (Max 11 Kms).

The Auto Driver took him for a ride and demanded Rs. 300, as he can not understand Tamil. But our Jat was smarter. When they crossed the Police station opp Adyar Bus Depot, he made so much noise that the auto driver stopped the auto. Our Jat promptly went into the station and complained.

The auto driver tried some usual Tamil stunts to confuse the police. They called me and cross checked.

Finally the auto driver was punished and his DL & Auto Permit were confiscated.

But how many Jats are there to stand up to these Goons?