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 !