SEZ for T.Nagar

SEZ in Haryana, SEZ in Gujarat.... Why not SEZ in T. Nagar.

Hey! I am not kidding. I am talking of a Special Economic Zone status for the roads of South Usman Road, Panagal Park and Ranganathan Street. Of course not of the manufacturing kind but of the shopping kind.

Let us look at the compelling reasons

1. T. Nagar is the World Capital of Hindu wedding jewellers
2. T. Nagar is the World Capital of Hindu wedding Silk Sarees Shops
3. T. Nagar -based Saravana Stores is a pioneer in his brand of retailing. (Wait till Wharton hears, it will make it a case-study)

Ranganathan Street is tourist destination for rural-folk. The traffice snarls have to be seen to be believed. The peculiar geography of the area is like no other.

The Big Idea :
.... is after making Panagal Park-UsmanRoad-Ranganathan Street an SEZ,..

1. to conduct Chennai shopping festival (say, on the lines of Dubai Shopping festival) to attract international shopping travellers
2. to stimulate shopping tourism into Chennai
3. to provide opportunity to local outlets to scale up
4. to allow multi-storey ( and I mean really mulit-storey , 15 floors plus) building to come up with adequate parking and other facilities
5. a framework for governing T. Nagar traffic and civic service is evolved. Though this is no panacea to the traffic problem a framework with special interest in T. Nagar can be a start
6. Pedestrain and Parking issues to be addressed by the SEZ
7. Government may not lose much revenue, because "regular customers" of 'Thanga Maligais' know how much tax is paid.

Think out of the Box !

Free WiFi everywhere ?

WiFi enabled laptops are gaining popularity but are not yet the standard. But where does one find Wifi hotspots to use them ? College libraries.Er.. Not exacly the most useful of places, considering that the libraries are already equipped with Net-connected computers.

As private players like Dishnet RED roll out hotspots all over the city ( i.e. all over all Barista, which incidentally, is a recently adopted sister-concern) usage really has not spread like wildfire.

One suggestion by a technology-illiterate.

Make Wifi internet accessible at two speeds-

1. At broadband minimum 256 Kbps at existing rates of access
2. Free ! at 56 Kbps

Anyone with a notebook should be able to access the internet. (56 kbps may sound cruel but wth it is Free) It is expected that while free Wifi access will bring more notebooks to the coffee table (and hence footfalls), over time this move will put more cash on the table. Moreover, the move if standardised universally will lead to perceivable improvement in sale of WiFi cards.

Free Wifi access is supposedly being provided at the Chennai Central and the Chennai Airport free. The proposed move will make free access at public places sustainable, rather than a burden on the service provider.

Will the evangelical telecom minister take the initiative ?

Chennai Metro - Tragic Comedy

The idea of this blog , lest you misunderstand, is not to question the status of the city of Chennai as a metropolitan city. That in the era of emerging newer cities, the question may not be totally irrelevant is a diferent issue.

The issue is that of the "panacea" to Chennai's traffic woes, The Metro Rail. Fortunately for Delhi but unfortunately for the rest of India, teh Delhi Metro is a success. Unfortunate for rest of India ??? Stupid politicians ( now,is there an intelligent politician?) donot have the originality to think up unique and customised solutions for each city. Cut-Copy-Paste is all they can understand.

The result is that Chennai will have 4 incompatible systems of rail transport. The Beach-Tambaram line cannot interconnect with the lines to Chennai Central. The MRTS ("Flying Train " in Tamil) donot interconnect with any other suburban rail system. The Ambattur-Chennai Central suburban line will not interconnect with other systems. To add to the incompatibility, the Metro is proposed. The metro is neither metre gauge nor broad gauge, it is standard gauge. It cannot "talk" to other networks even if it wants to. The commuter is expected to travel strictly on routes on any single network only.

The talk of the metro would have been hilarious if they governments did not seem serious about it. Now, it is a tragic-comedy (with apologies to P Chidambaram). But of course, politicians who never use public transport cannot be expected to do any better.

PS Whatever will happen to plans to extend the MRTS ?
Will Park Town -Chennai Central connectivity ever happen ?