The Chennai airport is undertaking a host of initiatives to ensure that becomes one of the top airports in the country. The Airports Authority of India has spent close to Rs 1.5 crore and has lined up many more initiatives. "Some airports are profit making while some loss making, in that light, Chennai is definitely a profit-making airport and has helped in initiating restructuring activities. All of these expansions are directed towards giving the customer maximum comfort," says R J Treasuryvala, airport director, Chennai Airport.
The airport gets its revenue from shop rent, rent paid by airlines for space occupied, rent from car park, landing and parking charges. The revenue garnered is utlised for maintenance and expansion. Some of the major expansions lined up include a new international departure terminal, vitrified tile flooring, car park, new signage boards, new reserved lounge, refurbishment of the ceremonial lounge, fancy lighting, sprinkler system for the runway, rest area for taxi drivers, plasma TVs, PA music systems which are completed till date. The airport has also introduced state-of-the-art technology with new escalators and conveyor belts.
The most important feature of Chennai airport is the Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE), the shared use departure system at the international departure terminal. There are several check-in counters in operation at the international terminal. Earlier each airline was designated certain number of counters, which would be occupied only when that particular airline is in action. With the CUTE system any airline can operate any counter ensuring that the counters are functioning at all times of the day. The system allows airlines to share check-in, departure control and back-office operation, increasing efficiency and reducing congestion and ensuring the passenger's pleasant journey through the airport. Both Lufthansa and Emirates have already signed up for this system, which is particularly useful in the international terminal where several flights operate with lot of passengers.
In the year 2004-05, the domestic terminal received 5.8 million passengers as compared to 2.5 million passengers in 2003-04. As for the international terminal, it received 6.1 million passengers in the year 2004-05 as compared to 2.05 million in 2003-04. There have been 51264 airport movements in terms of landing and takeoff. In addition, the airport received 149.85 million tonnes of cargo with majority being textiles and leather. The airport director attributes the success of the airport to his team of employees who have been doing great service.
http://www.expresstravelandtourism.com/200504/airwaves01.shtml
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The city police, with a view to providing further quality service to the people, proposed to go in for ISO certification and is trying something 'in this direction', a top police official said.
Initially, the attempt would be to get the ISO 9001-2000 certification for at least one police station in each of the 12 police districts, Police Commissioner R Natraj told PTI.
"We are aiming for this. There is a programme for obtaining the certification. We are gearing ourselves for this", he said.
There are several parameters for obtaining the certification, including the police station's appearance, both inside and outside, up-to-date records and transparent and easy accessibility. Others include filing of a chargesheet within 90 days and handing over the copy of a First Information Report to the complainant within 30-days.
The city police jurisdiction was recently enhanced by bringing many suburban areas under its ambit. All 150 police stations now have vehicles and communication equipment.
Eight main junctions in the city have been fitted with cameras operated from a central control room. Natraj said, 'ultimately the people of the metropolis have to be made the beneficiaries. The certification is aimed at this', he said.
http://sify.com/news/othernews/fullstory.php?id=13727194
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If you have already packed your bags to move to Bangalore in search of the dream tech job? Here's an eye opener. Chennai is going to be the biggest job generator in the coming months. Not only this, Telecom followed by IT and ITeS will remain active in hiring.
The latest Ma Foi Employment Survey (MEtS) April – June 2005 revealed the hiring trends in India recently. MEtS is a Quarterly study on Indian employment trends and opportunities conducted by Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd.
This quarter’s study has covered 2047 employers across 17 sectors in Products and Services category. This quarter’s specific focus is on Training at Workplace.
The survey provides a unique indice Ma Foi Employment Index (MEI). MEI measures the pace of recruitment activity/ hiring needs of the employers and indicates the prospective net percentage growth in employment over the present levels.
Hot states
South tops the MEI index followed by West, North and Eastern regions. The top five states for the quarter are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana and the top five cities are Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai.
The survey also indicates that, overall hiring has dipped as compared to last quarter. The reason is due to a general slow down in hiring trends seen across the country due to financial year-end and hiring plans for the year not yet being firmed by the companies.
Hot sectors
Telecom and IT maintained Telecom sector ranks as the first closely followed by IT and ITES in the second and third places. The others are Retail, Pharmaceutical, Hospitality, Transport & Logistics, Print Media & Entertainment, Infrastructure and Textiles.
MEtS indicates that India, Inc. considers training as low priority with employee training averaging at about 6.28 hours per person per annum across all sectors as against desired benchmark of 5 to 7 days.
An average of 6.28 man-hours of training is imparted per employee per annum. There is a wide divergence between various industry segments on training inputs given to their employees and generally considered a low priority.
Greater focus is provided to function specific training as against generic training. All sectors especially IT & ITES, BFSI Auto & Auto ancillaries, Education, Training & Consulting and Textiles have a very high focus on functional/role specific training
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1089632.cms
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Chennai is all set to surpass Mumbai and the National Capital Region, NCR, in terms of the amount of office space that will be leased out this year. According to real estate consultants, this will put Chennai on number two on the list behind Bangalore. CNBC-TV18 reports that the trend is expected to bring in as many as three lakh new employees into the city in the next three years.
There are at least 10 ‘parks’, which are coming up in the outskirts of Chennai over the next two years. These buildings are supposed to provide much-needed office space in the city. By the end of it, an estimated 35-lakh sq ft of commercial space is expected to hit the market. About 90% of this is expected to be taken by the IT industry.
Ramesh Nair, associate director, Jones Lang Lasalle, a premier real-estate agency, told CNBC-TV18, "Today Bangalore is the clear favourite in terms of commercial office space leasing activity at 6 million square feet in 2004. NCR and Mumbai are marginally higher than Chennai. But we expect Chennai to overtake these two cities this year."
Chennai’s real estate is driven by the presence of a clutch of international organisations that have set up, or are soon to set up shop in the city. From seven lakh square feet leased in 2002 to an estimated 25 lakh this year, Chennai has seen explosive growth in demand for commercial space in the last two years. Hardly surprising, considering that organisations like the World Bank and Nokia have recently chosen Chennai as the site for their India operations.
Speaking on the choice of Chennai as a possible destination, Jukka Lehtela, director, India operations, Nokia India told CNBC-TV18, "very important, not maybe valid in all parts of India is that they have very good colleges and universities from where we can get a lot of good labour as well."
Apart from the ready source of talent, companies say that Chennai's better roads and airport is a major advantage too.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/backends/News/frontend/news_detail.php?autono=166123
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Chennai, Apr 21:
Tata Elxsi, the product design arm of $14.25 billion Tata group, has set-up a design and development centre in Chennai to focus on wireless communications and networking and undertaking research on convergence technologies. The new office space of 10,000 sq ft in the heart of the city was inaugurated yesterday by the State IT secretary Vivek Harinarain.
In networking, the company offers end-to-end design and development services for its customers, enters into partnerships with manufacturers and product vendors for joint development of new products, thereby helps in the saving of R&D costs of their clients. 'Wireless networking is an emerging sector of the communications technology and Chennai as become the preferred destination for more companies to set up their presence,' the IT secretary said.
The State has received a first tranche of Rs 97.17 crore from the Centre in its ambitious plan to interlink all government offices in the districts through State-Wide Area Network (SWAN) and a special committee headed by Professor S R Raghavan, dean at IIT Madras, has gone into the specifics of the project, he stated. In this networking project there would be around 385 nodal points of exchange, comprising 206 taluks and 179 block level areas. Of critical importance to the success of new companies would be their timely delivery model to their domestic and offshore customers with better solutions, he said.
Chennai centre is the company's third one with Bangalore, its headquarters, and Thiruvananthapuram having design centres with focus on products development, networking and systems integration.
Tata Elxsi has a design centre in Mumbai with specialisation in animation and special effects in multimedia technologies. With an employee strength of 1,700 in all its design centres, the company is hoping to hire 100 specialists at its newly set-up Chennai office, which would be gradually raise to 500 numbers. 'We will be undertaking R &D in networking and communications technology in conjunction with our global partners. With availability of wide talent pool and a ready infrastructure, Chennai has been preferred as we feel the growth here,' said Jayen Gourishankar, head, Design and Development Centre, Chennai.
With the city attracting manufacturers like Nokia and Alcatel having announced tie-up with C-Dot for i-Max technology, 'we are looking for local partners and manufacturers for taking forward our activity in wireless and convergence technologies,' he said.
Professor Raghavan in his address said Tamilnadu with good number of engineering colleges has enormous human resource potential in the districts that were waiting to be tapped.
Though there were 2,800 villages in the country having fibre network to support IT environment with 24x7 operations, 'we need to have social justice in megabyte distribution even as emerging technologies will drive newer applications in wireless communications,' he said.
http://newstodaynet.com/21apr/bu1.htm
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Friends,For a change, here is a news about Rajni and Subramaniyan...not ChennaiWhen G Subramaniyan left for Japan 18 years ago, he was penniless. Earlier this month, when he came back to India, he had success written all over him. He runs two successful restaurants in Japan, owns properties worth crores of rupees there and is now planning an Indian foray of his culinary adventure. And believe it or not, Subramaniyan owes his success to Rajnikanth, the Tamil superstar. Born in a lower middle class family in Marakkanam with six siblings, graduating in Maths itself was an ordeal. All he could do then was to join as a bearer in Hotel Savera, Chennai, to support his family. Seeing young Subramaniyan’s enthusiasm, the hotel offered to sponsor him to study catering technology.
An Indian restaurant in Japan offered him a job. However, when he applied for a visa, he was in for a shock. ‘‘They rejected my visa saying that I did not have enough experience to work in Japan.’’ His prospective employers, however, stood by him and offered to sponsor him on a student visa. Subramaniyan also managed to secure admission to a diploma course in mechanical engineering. He could hardly afford to pay even his fare to Japan but his employers offered to foot the bill and he boarded the flight ‘‘without even a penny.’’ Still, life was not all that easy, as his employers sponsored his studies only so that he could stay on. ‘‘It was very difficult, both studying and working. I slept only for six hours a day. I was ready to work. All I wanted was to make some money.’’ His flair in Tamil fetched him a teaching job at Kyoto University. ‘‘That was when everything changed. I started teaching Tamil to the Japanese. I was also able to make some money.’’
The turning point came when Rajni-starrer ‘Muthu’ became a big hit in Japan and many Japanese wanted to learn Tamil. By then, he had also found a job as a chef in Hotel Ashoka. Soon, Subramaniam got close to many Rajnikanth fans and helped many to set up fan clubs. As there were no Tamil restaurants to be seen anywhere, Subramaniyan felt it was high time he himself started one. ‘‘I invested Rs 1.5 crore in two restaurants in Kyoto and Osaka. It was a huge risk as I had invested all my savings.’’ Initially nobody came, but he hit upon an idea to draw the crowds: playing Rajni movies. ‘‘As the crowd flowed in, I sold my dosas and vadas to them.’’ It was a big hit. ‘‘Now vadas and chutney are the favourite food of the Japanese and I make good money. I owe it all to Rajni and his fans.’’ Not just that, he also offers Bharathnatyam and other Indian cultural events every week to draw Japanese crowd to experience Tamil flavour. ‘‘People are crazy about Rajni and enjoy the food too.’’ Now, Subramaniyan earns not less than Rs 12 lakh a day. He is now ready to move ahead in life. Soon, he would be starting three Japanese specialty restaurants in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore at a cost of Rs 12 crore. Why Japanese cuisine? ‘‘Because there are not many Japanese restaurants here.’’ He might dig gold here too. Looking to venture where nobody else has always been Subramaniyan’s way
http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/32303.asp
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CHENNAI: Asia's leading business space provider, Ascendas today announced the near-completion of the first phase of its land mark International Tech Park-Chennai (ITPC), setting a new benchmark for information technology parks in the country.
Mr Cedric Foo, Singapore Minister for State for Defence and National Development and the Tamil Nadu Industries Minister, Mr Nainar Nagendran at Taramani, graced the Phase-I topping-out ceremony near here.
Phase-I, being developed by a consortium of Singapore-based companies, leveraging on the island-nation's design and construction expertise, would make available 5.25 lakh sq ft of quality space for IT companies.
Beyond physical space, Ascendas has introduced 'work-play in motion' with extensive landscaping and stylish artworks.
Value added features such as a large food court, al fresco dining, retail outlets and a fully equipped fitness centre would bring city conveniences to the tenants of the Park.
Located on the IT corridor, with close proximity to TIDEL Park, the city's landmark space for IT companies, the ITPC would receive customers from May this year.
After the completion of second and third phases, the state-of-the-art Park would have 1.5 million sq ft.
The first phase would comprise large floor plates on about 65,000 sq ft and the facility would enjoy 100 per cent power backup, 24/7 broadband connectivity, centralised air-conditioning, advanced fire protection, security system and ample parking space. - UNI
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/14151506.htm
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Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today announced that Chennai will have a metro rail on the lines of the one in New Delhi. The first phase was proposed to be implemented between 2005 and 2010 at a cost of Rs 5086.85 crore.
The State government had already got a feasibility report from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in response to its request for a Detailed Project Report (DPR), Jayalalithaa told the State Assembly, intervening during the discussion on demands for grants for Housing and Urban Development.
The Chief Minister said the DPR would be ready within six months and Rs 3.30 crore had been allocated for the purpose. The growing population and road traffic made one more mass transport system imperative for the city.
As per the DMRC report, the project could be implemented in phases on three major routes. The first corridor will commence from Thiruvottriyur and pass through Anna Salai and conclude in Chennai Airport covering a distance of 31.54 kilometers. The second corridor will cover 13.54 kilometer between Beach and Koyambedu. The third route will pass through Thiruvanmiyur , LB Road, Ramakishna Mutt Road , Luz Church Road, Eldams Road , Theyagaraya Road, Inner Ring Road and end at Ambattur Industrial Estate covering a distance of 21.68 kilometers, she said.
In the first corridor, rails will be laid for 8.4 kilometers underground and the rest on ground. Through the first and second major corridors, 10.56 lakh passengers can travel per day and, as a result, the number of commuters would go up from 43 per cent to 60 per cent. The new facility will save time and money for passengers, she said.
The total area of the metropolis was 1177 sq kms of which 72 sq km constituted the heart of the city. As per the 2001 census, the population of the city and suburbs stood at 70.4 lakh and of the city alone at 43.4 lakh, she said.
Giving a detailed account on the growth of vehicle population in the city, she said it had touched 16 lakh in 2004. It was increasing by 600 vehicles everyday. But the road space was not in proportion to the vehicle population.
In Bangkok, the road space stood at 11 per cent and in developed cities London, Paris and New York, it was 22 per cent to 25 per cent. But in Chennai, the road space was a meagre 3-4 per cent. This was creating problems in traffic management and ensuring safety of commuters .
Referring to the various measures taken to manage the traffic congestion, including the starting of MRTS, the Chief Minister said considering the long term needs of the city, she had decided to bring the metro rail to Chennai.
http://newstodaynet.com/12apr/rf2.htm
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Chennai, Apr 11:
A motor vehicle spare parts-manufacturing park is coming up near Singaperumal Koil in an area of 1,343 acres, State Industries Ministers Nainar Nagendran said today. During question hour, the Minister said the park was coming up with the assistance of Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation. The park would be established at a cost Rs 232 crore and provide direct employment to 3,000 persons and indirect employment to 30,000. The park is expected to attract investments from within the country and also from abroad to the tune of Rs 2500 crore, he said.
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BANGALORE, India — Intel Corp. will locate a production facility in the southern Indian city of Chennai, according to a news report Monday (April 11) quoting India's union minister for communications and information technology, Dayanidhi Maran.
No further details about what will be manufactured at the proposed plant, or whether it will be a fabrication facility, were available. Past reports have assumed that an Indian manufacturing facility would imply the construction of a wafer fab. Other observers have said this is unlikely, and that a test and assembly facility for the chip packaging is more likely.
According to a report in The Hindu of Chennai (formerly Madras), "All multinational companies look for a very good deal and other incentivespointing out that Intel had finalized its plans for a manufacturing facility in Chennai." It quoted the minister as saying: " They [Intel] are waiting for the special economic zone policy to be announced."
The report said the minister had assured Intel Chairman Craig Barrett when they met last year that the project would be put on a fast track arrangement.
The minister was also quoted as saying that the federal government had formed an interministerial task force from the telecoms, commerce and finance ministers to coordinate all issues regarding the Nokia manufacturing plant to make mobile devices announced last week. Nokia's plant is also coming up in the state of Tamil Nadu, though not in Chennia, the state capital.
Three more global telecom equipment manufacturers are shaping their India plans, including Motorola and Nortel Networks, it quoted Maran as saying.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160700166
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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday pledged full support for bringing Formula One racing to Chennai.
She gave the assurance when racing icon Narain Karthikeyan, the first ever Indian to feature in F1, called on her at the Secretariat, an official release said.
During the meeting, Karthikeyan explained all the features of F1 racing and the tremendous viewership the sport commanded.
He requested the Chief Minister to support the proposal to bring the sport to Chennai as the city was the "automobile capital of India" and should automatically be the choice.
Jayalalithaa told him that she had already written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for establishment of a motor racing circuit and an automobile testing facility here. She had also drawn the attention of the Prime Minister to the need to bring F1 racing to the city, the release said.
"The Chief Minister indicated that the proposal to establish a racing circuit will receive her full support", the release said.
During the meeting, Principal Secretary, Finance, N. Narayanan was also present.
http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/sports/20050411-0.html
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Sunday, 10 April , 2005, 11:31
Chennai: @Road, a US-based company that enables other companies manages a large network of field staff or a mobile workforce, hopes to make Chennai a base for expanding its Asia operations.
Addressing reporters, Krish Panu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, @Road, said the company inaugurated its expanded operations and facilities in Chennai at the Elnet Software City.
It has over 100 professionals and about 10,000 sq. ft of prime office space. It will continue to expand its presence in Chennai, which will be a hub for its operations in Asia. Its Chennai centre is expected to catalyse its growth in Asia, he added.
@Road, which describes itself as a Mobile Resource Management solutions provider, offers products developed in-house - software that can be linked to a range of communication equipment, wired or wireless, and computers whether desktop, laptop or palm-held.
The services can be quickly deployed through @Road's Internet Location Manager and Internet Data Terminal, which will be installed by its representatives. Software applications can be downloaded on to the employees' cell-phones or computers.
The products can be deployed regardless of the operating system device of networks.
They find application in a wide range of industries including field service, telecom, facilities/waste management; construction, courier and logistics service providers. Some of the applications include sales force automation to accelerate invoicing, and create paperless trail of transactions; field service automation for efficient dispatching; and supply chain management for inventories and asset management.
The company's total revenues in 2004 were $75.2 million, up 19 per cent over 2003 when its revenue was $63 million.
http://sify.com/finance/equity/fullstory.php?id=13714211
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CHENNAI, APRIL 7: Taj Business Hotels (TBH) is studying the option of setting up a business class hotel in the IT corridor, in Chennai. “ We are buoyant about our business prospects in Chennai and would be looking at setting up a hotel in the Technology-Airport area”, said Ms Jyothi Narang, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Taj Business Hotels, at a press briefing here on Thursday.
Taj GVK, the joint venture partner of TBH has already announced its plans to set up a business hotel in Chennai. If both plans are approved, it would take the number of business hotels owned by the division in Chennai to three, including Taj Connemera. “ Our intent is to build the capacity for our business hotels in the metros where the demand is expected to grow quickly”, said Ms Narang.
The company would also expand capacity in its hotels in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai by the end of 2005. An investment of about Rs 50 crore would be made for the expansion of room capacity in the four hotels.
Elaborating on the change in menu of the restaurants and coffee shops of the hotels Ms Narang said that a team of chefs from Taj business hotels would go to Pakistan next week to learn the Pakistani cuisine. “ There is more to Pakistani cuisine than just the Mughalai dishes, she explained.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=87328
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Chennai, April 6 (PTI): A 13-kms Express Highway from Chennai Port to Maduravayal to facilitate easy movement of containers from the port will be constructed at a cost of Rs 750 crore, Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T R Baalu said today.
National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) would hold 30 per cent equity stake each in the proposed project while the port users such as exporters and importers have agreed to take another 10-12 per cent equity stake, he told reporters here.
Baalu said the remaining 30 per cent cost of the project would be met through debt and other loans.
This will be the third express highway in the country after the Mumbai-Pune Express Highway and Ahmedabad-Baroda Express Highway, he said.
Baalu said ChPT was setting up a second terminal and a ship repair facility at the Port. With the movement of containers to and from the Chennai Port likely to go up in the future, the Union Minister said it was necessary to build an Express Highway for "evacuating the huge containers". The proposed Express Highway would ease the traffic and avoid congestion," he said.
The Express Highway, which would be from the Gate Number two of ChPT to Maduravayal, will cover 13 kms. The Government would also consider charging user fees for the vehicles on the proposed Express Highway, Baalu said.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200504061851.htm
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The Lifeline Rigid Hospital group in mid-May will open a 200-bed multi-specialty hospital in Perungudi, a suburb south of Chennai. The group has invested Rs 35 crore in the hospital.
A key feature of the hospital would be its middle-class orientation in pricing. Lifeline Rigid’s chairman and chief surgeon J S Rajkumar said that the hospital's rates would be about 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the prevailing rates in top end hospitals.
Rajkumar said that a pricing that appeals to a larger section of the patient population benefits the hospital too by generating a significant volume.
The hospital's capacity could be more than doubled to reach 500 beds at an additional investment of Rs 10 crore, he added.
The new hospital would be the third Lifeline healthcare unit in Chennai. The group has a 50-bed hospital in the city, and a diagnostic centre.
The new hospital would be the group’s most sophisticated facility. Rajkumar, who was part of the team that carried out India’s first liver transplant in 1995 at Apollo Hospitals’ Chennai centre, said that the new facility was equipped to carry out multi-organ transplants.
The hospital would aim to move on to a paperless environment because it offsets the human errors that happen during manual replication, said Rajkumar.
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April 06, 2005 11:42 IST
Global mobile handset major Nokia on Wednesday announced that it will set up a manufacturing facility for mobile devices at Chennai in India.
Pekka Ala Pietila, President, Nokia, informed Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran from Helsinki about the company board's decision to set up the manufacturing plant in Chennai, official sources said.
The manufacturing unit in Chennai will be Nokia's tenth mobile device production facility globally. Nokia anticipates investing an estimated $100-150 million in the India production plant.
"Establishing a new factory in India is an important step in the continuous development of our global manufacturing network. We selected Chennai to be the location for the factory thanks to the availability of skilled labor, friendly business environment, support from the state government, good logistics connections and overall cost-efficiency," said Ala-Pietilä.
Nokia's new facility in Chennai is in the state of Tamil Nadu in the southern part of India. The construction work at the site of the manufacturing unit will start in April and production is expected to begin in the first half of 2006.
Nokia foresees ramping up the factory gradually and the work force reaching approximately 2,000 employees when production is full scale.
Mobile penetration in Asia Pacific is expected to be a major contributor to the global mobile subscriber base surpassing the two billion mark by the end of 2005.
Therefore, India which is set at the heart of the region where mobile communications is growing rapidly was a natural location of choice for the new production facility.
In India, Nokia is the market leader in mobile devices. Nokia maintains sales, marketing, customer care, and research and development sites in the country. Nokia was recently recognized as the Brand of the year by the Confederation of Indian Industry as well as the most respected consumer durables company by the BusinessWorld magazine.
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/apr/06nokia.htm
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