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India’s First Print to Viral Tabloid
http://www.wtzup.in/kochi
Issue 6 Volume 1 May 2014
.in
“Fort Kochi is a very special place. The culture, the food…I enjoy spending time there. Fort Kochi is a visual treat.”
Kochi
Waiting for the
KOMET
/whatsupkochi
aju varghese
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
Page 3
Auction Act and A Heart filling Spread... Turn to pG 3 to see who all turned up for this charity event...
Fabindia presents Indigo Diaries A special promotion of Indigo garments and accessories at stores across India.
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dye like no other in the world… found in the textile history of many great civilizations from India, China, Egypt to South America and Africa... Indigo is the dye stuff of legends. Celebrating the universal charm of this beautiful hue, Fabindia presents INDIGO DIARIES, an exciting range of garments and accessories in striking intensities of blue. The collection highlights garments created using techniques used since ancient times for natural indigo dyeing.
Come 2016 and Kochi is going to be the first tier II city in India to have a metro. With a capacity to accommodate 975 passengers at a time, the Kochi Metro or KOMET is already changing the cityscape.
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ju’s chai stall has been in MG Road for the past 6 years. Tucked between branded outlets, the shop has been seeing the transformation of the commercial centre of Kochi since the metro work began in September 2013. “Business is not good” says Aju. “Nobody can stop and come to my shop since they made the road single lane. I’m not complaining because this struggle is for a good cause. If the next generation asks us what we did for them, we have something to show”. In between the metal shutters, dust, heat and traffic jams in Kochi, are people looking at the glass half full.
Present scenario Let us face it. It is not a pretty picture. The normally vibrant Kochi centre has one third the crowd it used to have. There are over two hundred shops in
MG Road alone. The overall business has reduced to forty to fifty percent according to the Kerala Merchants Union. Twenty five percent of the shops have shut down. Offices have been relocating to the highway. But most remain optimistic, they are certain that whatever loss they bear now will be recovered once the metro starts running.
Learning from others Take the Delhi Metro for instance says K Venkatesh Pai of the Kerala Merchants Union, “ When the construction was going on there were concerns about the Connaught place and Chandni Chowk losing business, but now the areas sees a sixty percentage increase in footfall. Business has never been better. Kochi just has to hold on for another two years and its patience will be paid off in double. The Kerala Merchants Union is
pushing forward a metro rehabilitation package at the moment which would bring much needed relief to the small time business owners.
The other side of the coin For the major textile houses the metro work has not affected their business since they have ample parking, alternate entry points and a dedicated customer base. Theatres too have not registered a decrease as their sole dependency is on the popularity of the films. But others are barely able to keep up. They all await the pride of Kochi to start functioning and transform their businesses. Auto drivers who are bearing the brunt of the metro work say that their business would only increase once the metro starts. Though the metro work has brought about a lot of changes, Kochiites are focused on the light at the end of the tunnel.