TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, KOCHI | THRISSUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2013

MALAYALI ARCHBISHOP KURIAKOSE REMEMBERSHUGO CHAVEZ AS A REAL CHRISTIAN | P4

PANEL FOR PURCHASE OF DIESEL FROMSUPPLYCO-RUN PUMPS TO SAVE KSRTC | P5

Gireesh P Krishnan | TNN

As many as 50 malls will become operational in Kerala over the next three years without leav-ing out small towns and cities. Malls are coming up in Kochi,

Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Thris-sur, Kollam, Kannur, Thalassery and a few other towns. At present, 12 malls are operat-ing within the state and another 25 malls will be open by mid-2014.

Mall managers say that potential of malls are high in southern and central dis-tricts of Kerala compared to northern parts, where availability of huge area of land for setting up malls is a problem due to the high population density.

Chief mall mechanic of Beyond Square-feet Susil S Dungarwal said the state has a huge potential for malls as many Keralites have exposure to mall culture from gulf countries. “The advantage is that people in Kerala are not afraid to visit malls compared to cities like Indore and Patna, where people feel the price pinch. The high disposable income of citizens is an added advantage,” he said.

“Shopping culture in the state has un-dergone many changes and people need free space, food courts and multiplexes when they go shopping. Malls have the po-tential to attract even people from other states and will be a boon for those who pre-fer branded products,” said chairman of Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry K N Marzook.

Existing malls in the state are smaller in size compared to their counterparts in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. But most upcoming malls have an area of 5-6 lakh sq ft, almost three times the size of Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium in Kochi. These malls will house multiplexes and

outlets of international restaurant chains. They are also expected to bring many lead-ing international brands that are not oper-ating in the state now. Other facilities, which malls are likely to offer, include entertain-ment zones for families.

“With all 50 malls becoming operational,

there will be a total built up area of 15 million sq ft. They are expected to have a business of Rs 1,5000 crore per an-num,” said Dungarwal, adding that his company is handling the works of seven malls in Kerala.

One advantage is that they are expected to generate 1,15,000 job opportunities over the next three years. They need qualified people to fill the posts of managers, sales staff, housekeeping and security.

Companies that are either in the process of setting up a shopping mall or planning one include Prestige Group, Unitech, Gold Souk, Malabar Group, Abad Builders and a few others.

“Design is the key aspect of a mall as it should be attractive and entice people who visit the malls to shop. Though mall culture will provide more projects to architects, it will be a challenge to design aesthetic shop-ping centres,” said managing director of Ajit Associates B R Ajit.

He added that vertical transportation is another important aspect and escalators have to be connected from point to point. Ajit, who constructed Gold Souk mall, is now working on a new mall in Kannur.

KM Sree | TNN

Kozhikode: Two more multi-brand malls will soon be set up in Kozhikode which al-ready has two in the form of Focus Mall and RP Mall. HiLite City Mall is expected to open by the end of 2013 while, Gokulam Galleria, a convention centre-cum-mall promoted by the Gokulam group has just started its project.

General manager (sales) of HiLite Group R G Menon said: “We would be the first mall to introduce some premium brands like Life-style, which is part of the Dubai-based Land-mark Group, multi-national independent retail chain Spar and Mexico-based multi-plex chain Cinepolis. The mall will have a built-up area of 1.4 million

sq ft and the investment is Rs 350 crore.”Menon said the mall promises a blend

of retail and entertainment spaces with a 60,000 sq ft hypermarket, 50,000 sq ft depart-ment store, 35,000 sq ft gaming zone and an eight screen multiplex. “There will be 200+ branded retail outlets, a 3 star business hotel and food courts with a seating capacity for 1,500 people. We will also have a parking facility to accom- modate 3,500 cars,” he said.

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi: Chief minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate Lulu Shopping Mall in Kochi this Sunday. The mall, with a total area of over 25 lakh square feet and an investment of Rs 1, 600 crore, is pro-moted by Emke group headed by non-resident Keralite entrepreneur M A Yousuf Ali. The whole complex covers an area of 20 acres and includes a 300-room hotel that will be managed by re-nowned hospitality group JW Marriott Hotels. The hotel will be inaugurated in four to five months, said a spokesman for the EMKE group.

The mall will have about 300 national and branded outlets. It will also house a huge food court with a seating capacity for 3,500 people with 18 food counters in addition to the specialty restaurants and dining halls. Lulu will also house Mc-Donald’s first outlet in Kerala.

The mall will have an indoor ice skating rink, claimed to be the first-of-its-kind in south India. The family ex-periment centre will have a 5-D cinema hall, bowling alleys, water rides and elec-tronic games and other entertainment facilities.

The mall will also house a nine screen multiplex with seating capacities rang-

ing from 250 to 600, the spokesman said. He said the mall will provide space for parking over 3,000 vehicles while pro-viding special access to differently-abled people.

“This is our first hypermarket in Kerala and India, though we have such malls in nine countries in the Middle East. We already have a strong brand loyalty in Kerala because of the long-standing Gulf connection. Our market surveys have found that Kerala, with a fast-rising middle class, offers an enormous potential to operate such a world-class shopping mall,” said the spokesman.

A MALL HIGH AWAITS KERALA

12

25

MALLS ARE OPERATING IN KERALA

MALLS WILL BEGIN OPERATIONS BY MID-2014

AT PRESENT,

NEW MALLS TO COME UP IN KOCHI, T’PURAM,KOZHIKODE, THRISSUR, KOLLAM,KANNUR, THALASSERYAND A FEW OTHER TOWNS

1,15,000JOB OPPORTUNITIES OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS.

NEW MALLS WILL GENERATE

50 Malls To Become Operational In State Over The Next 3 Years

Lulu offers ice skating rink, joyrides

50MALLS BECOME OPERATIONAL, THERE WILL BE A TOTAL BUILT UP AREA OF

15mnSQ FT GENERATING A BUSINESS OF

CRORE PER ANNUM

IF ALL

15,000

Shyam PV | TNN

Thiruvananthapuram: The capital ishome to over 50,000 techies, big businessmen and well-paid government employees. How-ever, it is yet welcome mall culture that has been witnessing a considerable growth in Kerala. Many real estate groups and NRIs have been trying to open a shopping mall here without much success.

“I was not sure whether the city would embrace this trend as most city residents - government officials - are known for saving their entire salaries and investing it in prop-erty and gold. At least a dozen mall projects have been announced in and around the capital, but none succeeded due to this scep-ticism,” said a well-known builder who had

announced a shopping mall in 2009.Condor Builders at Pattom, Big Infratech

near Technopark, Plaza Centres near Akku-lam Lake, and Nikunjam Constructions at Ayurveda College Junction had announced projects. While construction of some projects is underway, many have been scrapped. “There are two reasons. One - un-derestimating the tendency of residents. Nobody could actually read the potential and the amount of money residents are willing to spend on luxury and enjoyment. Two, impractical clauses and anti-development restrictions imposed in the Kerala Munici-pal Building Rules in 2009. Now, state has amended the rule to help such projects,” said SN Raghuchandran Nair, secretary general of CREDAI.

Capital yet to tap its buying potential

2 MORE SHOPPING CENTRES TO COME UP IN KOZHIKODE

MALL FOR THE

COMMON MAN

Ever since its inception in 2008, Jobys Mall in Palakkad stands apart as a

common man’s mall. Its 60 shops, including food courts, entertainment zone and branded outlets are run by members of Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samiti (KVVES). Also, the mall will soon introduce a twin screen miniplex with 100 seats each. “Mall culture was limited to the upper middle class and we decided to try our luck. After a poor initial response, we have a solid customer base now,” said KVVES,state vice president, Joby V Chungath, the promoter of the mall. TNN

An inside view of Lulu Shopping Mall that will be inaugurated by CM Chandy on Sunday

Pics: Jipson Sikhera & RK Sreejith

Kochi: For starting a newmedical college, the govern-ment will have to shell outaround Rs 400 crore besidesthe cost of land. The govern-ment has earmarked Rs 142crore for convert-ing the existinggeneral hospital atManjeri into a med-ical college. This isfor developing in-frastructure alone.But to take over theCochin Medical College(CMC), the government willhave to spend only Rs 45crore, which the Co-operativeAcademy for ProfessionalEducation (CAPE) owes tobanks.

Overdraft availed fromthe Ernakulam District Co-operative Bank by pledgingthe properties of CAPE, in-

cluding the land of CMC,comes to around Rs 35 crore.The overdraft may vary fromtime to time and it touched amaximum of Rs 45 crore. Sotaking over the medical col-lege is less expensive thanstarting a new one.

“The re-vised cost ofthe medicalcollege whichis being con-structed atKonni isaround Rs 380

crore. Apart from theamount, there is the cost ofland component as well,’’said former CMC medical di-rector P G R Pillai. He is thenodal officer for five medicalcolleges proposed by the gov-ernment.

The CMC also has advan-tage in terms of staff whencompared to similar projects.

Currently, the CMC hasaround 75% staff requiredfor the medical college. “Thestrength of doctors at Manje-ri general hospital is 64 andthe government has createdposts of 83 new doctors. Thetotal requirement of doctorsfor Manjeri medical collegeis around 200,’’ said Pillai.

The total new posts of doc-

tors created for Manjeri med-ical college will be around140, whereas CMC will haveto appoint only around 50new doctors. When comparedto government hospitals inErnakulam district, the staffstrength in CMC is far ahead.The Ernakulam GeneralHospital, which is the biggestgovernment hospital in thedistrict, has only 40 doctors.

Accessibility from allparts of the district to theCMC, especially the north-ern, southern and easternsides of the district, is high.

People from these partscan reach the hospital with-out major traffic snarls. Sit-uated opposite Kinfra Park inKalamassery, the hospital isjust 4km away from the Alu-va-Ernakulam nationalhighway. The distance to Sea-port-Airport Road and Aluvais 3km and 8km, respectively.

CMC is a cheaper bet for govtOnly .̀ 45cr Required To Convert CMC To Medical College

M K Sunil Kumar TNN

MEDICAL COLLEGE

FOR KOCHI

JUDGE TO DOCTORT K Deepaprasad

Chief Justice Manjula Chellur was felicitated at the inaugural session of art festival organized by the KeralaHigh Court Advocates Association at high court auditorium on Wednesday. She was awarded a doctorate by Karnataka State Women’s University

Thiruvananthapuram: Thestate will ensure that 20% ofthe component procurementby the 45 public sector under-takings is made from microand small enterprises in tunewith the public procurementpolicy announced by the Cen-tre.

Industries minister P KKunhalikutty disclosed thishere on Wednesday, at the in-augural function of the state-level vendors and buyers meeton ancillary industries orga-nised by the district industriescentre (DIC). “The public pro-curement policy though man-datory for the Central PSUswill be made mandatory forthe state and implemented bynext year to ensure that microand small industrial sectorbenefits out of it,” he said.

MLA K Muraleedharansaid Keralites migrated to theGulf for better prospects but itwas no more lucrative now.“The best option for the edu-cated Malayali now is to look atbusiness ventures in the stateand promote entrepreneur-ship,” he said.

K Sudhir, additional direc-tor (technical), DIC said themeeting was aimed at creatinga link between central andstate PSUs, other major buyersand MSEs to explore businessopportunities. He said it pro-vided a platform for buyers oflight engineering, electrical-electronic components andproducers to identify theirbusiness partners, interactand make business deals.

The establishments thattook part in the meeting in-cluded Keltron, VSSC, Brah-mos Aerospace, Railways, For-est Industries Travancore,Travancore Titanium Prod-ucts, Kinfra, Small IndustriesDevelopment Corporation andUnited Electricals.

Over 200 MSEs engaged inproduction, fabrication, ma-chining, assembling and preci-sion component manufactur-ing also participated.

State PSUs toprocure fromsmall firms

Kochi: Women facing dis-crimination and gender-based violence at home,schools, work place and onthe streets tolerate theabuse due to the lack of sen-sitivity shown by the crimi-nal justice system, accord-ing to a study by the statehome department.

Following the report, thepolice department is plan-ning to recruit and train ju-venile welfare justice offi-cers (JWJO) asinvestigators in child abusecases.

“To start with, there isno woman SI in any of thepolice stations in the state.We are campaigning forwoman police in the investi-gation of crimes. That willgive the victims a sense ofsecurity to come forwardand report a crime,” said BSandhya, additional direc-tor general of police(ADGP).

There are only 2,800women police personnel inthe 50,000-strong policeforce in the state.

“The quantum of short-age that we face in the wakeof rising crimes againstwomen and children ishuge. We are also facing ashortage of assistant beatofficers in Janamaithri po-lice stations too,” she added.

The study which wasdone by Dr Celine Sunny ofthe Research Institute ofthe Rajagiri School of So-cial Sciences was based on

three categories of women,including victims of atroci-ties, judicial/prosecutionofficers and key personnel(social & women activists)from eight police districts ofthe state.

Around 240 women vic-tims were interviewed togather information on thestudy.

Seven judicial and twokey personnel (women/so-cial activists) were also con-sulted for atrocities againstwomen and gender sensitiv-ity.

“When I was doing mydoctorate in the same topicway back in 2002, I foundthat there was zero report-ing of atrocities. Now it is11% which is an indicatorthat women are coming for-ward to register com-plaints. But much needs tobe done. We have been get-ting plan funds under thegender flagship to supportgender sensitization,” saidSandhya.

Criminal justice systeminsensitive to gender: Study

Sudha Nambudiri TNN

Following the report,the policedepartment isplanning to recruitand train juvenilewelfare justiceofficers (JWJO) asinvestigators in childabuse cases

Thiruvananthapuram: TheKerala State Co-operative Tou-rism Federation Ltd (Tourfed),a government-controlled agen-cy, has entered into an under-standing with the Lions Club tostart around 200 coffee kiosks atErnakulam, Kozhikode, Palak-kad and Thrissur districts.

The move is expected to gen-erate employment for personswith disabilities and widows.The kiosks will be located atrailway stations, bus stands,hospitals etc.

A holiday portal, holiday-joint.com, with exclusive focuson Kerala will also be launchedby Tourfed soon. “This is an ef-fort to bring together tourism-related resources under oneroof,” said Tourfed chairmanPazhakulam Madhu.

Tourfed plans200 coffee

kiosks in state

Thiruvananthapuram:

Steps are afoot to set up one-stop crisis management cellsin each district of the state tocheck violence against wom-en and children.

“The jagratha samithisin all panchayats across thestate will be empowered toregister cases of sexual vio-lence against women andchildren as part of the Nirb-haya scheme. The crisismanagement cells will formpart of this,” social justiceminister M K Muneer toldTOI.

He said 77 more pan-chayats would be declaredwomen-friendly on the linesof the Mararikulam pan-chayat. Social welfare de-

partment director M S Jayasaid the government wouldensure safe shelter homes inevery district for victims ofabuse. “These will be on thelines of Nirbhaya shelterhome here. Crisis manage-ment centres are alsoplanned for such victims.”

Nirbhaya project officerShaniba Begum said the cri-sis management cells wouldwork in association with ta-luk hospitals. Each cell willhave two police officers toregister first information re-

ports, a full-time counselor, ageneral physician, psycholo-gist and gynecologist so thatthe victim of sexual assaultis offered counseling sup-port, care and medical assist-ance to submit the medicalreport.

“Jagrathasamithis inpanchayats, with the pan-chayat president as chair-man and ICDS supervisor asconvener, will have an advo-cate and a woman ward mem-ber to register such cases andconduct monthly meetingsto take stock of the actiontaken by the police or courts.It will be sent to the districtNirbhaya Samithi,” she said.

The state Nirbhaya cell will coordinate the func-tioning of the district Nirbhaya samithis.

Dist cells to check violenceagainst women, children

Laxmi Ajai Prasanna TNN The governmentwould ensure safeshelter homes inevery district forvictims of abuse

The revised cost ofthe medical collegewhich is beingconstructed at Konniis around Rs 380crore. Apart from theamount, there is thecost of landcomponent as well

P G R Pillai| FORMER CMC

DIRECTOR

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

TIMES NEWS NETWORK