Kochi
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Kochi’s car mile
Feb 08 2015
Kochi's car mile in the fast lane
Shenoy Karun
A 15-km potholed stretch near Kochi has transformed into an auto hub with 22 car brands and the country's largest showroom When you drive from Thrissur towards downtown Kochi, it is hard to miss the white, 11-storey car showroom perched on the left of the highway.Spread over 3.85 lakh square feet, the Toyota outlet is the largest in India, and boasts of a test drive track on the third floor. In comaprison, one of the biggest in Mumbai, Concorde, which showcases Tata Motors, is spread over 9,000 sq ft. Toyota isn't alone. Twenty-two top car brands have set up showrooms along this 15-km stretch of highway.This is despite fact that the road is so scarred with pot-holes that the district collector had to threaten the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) with criminal proceedings to get it fixed during the monsoon. In fact, now even auto accessory shops are mushrooming here.
Around the beginning of the decade, dealers noticed a latent demand for cars among Malayalis. There was new-found affluence in the state and also a growing quest for the aspirational lifestyle.M A M Babu Moopan, chairman and managing director of Nippon Toyota, was one of the first to translate this into a profitable business.
“We need a flagship showroom for Toyota here in Kochi, and our idea was to develop a building which is 100% utilized and efficient,“ he says. There are virtually no peons in his building -the document delivery between different departments in the building is done by a high-speed pneumatic mail transfer system.
Other car companies like Jaguar & Land Rover, Porsche, Audi and BMW followed suit, though with smaller showrooms. Rolls Royce is also reportedly planning to set up shop soon. The sales figures are impressive.During 2013-14, Muthoot Motors sold nine Range Rover Vogues here, each costing roughly Rs 2.5 crore.Between its Kochi and Kozhikode showrooms, BMW dealer Platino Classic sold 550 cars in 2012. Mercedes Benz says its demand in Kerala grew by 20% last year. What marks the Kerala market apart is the profile of the buyer of luxury cars. “In other states, customers are mostly corporates and big businessmen, very few professionals and NRIs. But here they are mostly self-employed businessmen with small or medium enterprises in spice exports, the rubber industry or tourism. And there are a lot of professionals buying big cars here.Non-resident Malayalis also push sales because many families have at least one member working abroad,“ says Mitesh K Patel, director of KP Cars, which sells Audi and Harley Davidson.
Non-resident Malayalis contribute roughly 95% of the sales at Muthoot Motors which sells Jaguar and Land Rover, says managing director Thomas Muthoot. “Film stars and professionals like engineers and doctors constitute the remaining 5%,“ he adds.
Rich rubber planters from the Kottayam-Pala-Thiruvalla “rubber belt“ also drive the sales of premium cars in Kochi. “There is no central tax on planting in come, only the State Agriculture Income Tax, a compound ing system of taxa tion, related not to the income, but the size of the plantation. This high dis posable income ena bles them to buy premium cars,“ says V Sathyanaray anan, senior part ner at the chartered accountancy firm Varma & Varma.
But Sathy anarayanan says t h a t e v e n t h e average Malayali is now indulging in conspicuous consump tion, a fact that pulls every major auto company to Kochi. “I have noticed that many aspirational Malayalis are now buy ing multiple cars, which are sometimes beyond their means too,“ he says.
Does this mean that Kerala is seeing an auto boom? Not quite, says Rajesh Nair, associate director, EY (formerly Ernst & Young). “Post liberalization, car sales in Kerala have been higher than other states. What you see is a natural progression -the buyers who start with smaller cars are upgrading to bigger ones”, he says.
Metro rail
13km project completed in record time, June 18, 2017: The Times of India
The Times of India, June 18, 2017
The first 13-km stretch of Kochi Metro, completed in record time and incorporating state-of-the-art communication facilities that none other metros in India possess, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Expected to bring considerable relief to the city's chronic traffic congestion, the Metro is also likely to put the state's development agenda back on track. In his inaugural speech, Modi said that Kochi Metro is the first true reflection of Make In India initiative, citing the fact that the coaches of Kochi Metro manufactured by French company Alstom at its plant near Chennai had 70% Indian components. Welcoming the audience in Malayalam, Modi said, “With Kochi Metro becoming a reality , I along with the general public am happy and proud. I congratulate the people of Kochi on this proud moment“.
Belying apprehensions that the event would be marked by partisanship, with the BJP-led central government and the CPM-led state government claiming exclusive credit for executing the project on time, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan underscored the Centre's role in helping the project become a reality .
“When the inauguration of Kochi Metro rail was planned, the state government had no doubt on who should commission the project. The state cabinet unanimously decided that it should be none other than the PM,“ he said. He also said there wouldn't be any tussle between the Centre and state so far as the development of Kerala was concerned.
Though the PM didn't announce any major development projects for the state, Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu said the Centre was considering Kerala government's request for extending the Metro to Kakkanad as well as looking favourably at projects like Light Metros in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
Before the official ceremony , the PM accompanied by the governor, CM and a handful of dignitaries travelled up and down on the Metro from Palarivattom to Pathadipalam. Modi also lauded Kochi Metro Rail Limited,s initiative to recruit around 1,000 women and 23 transgender persons to work for it.
The CM launched the innovative Kochi smart card that can be also used for other modes of transport like buses, autos and taxis.
