in Mahatma Gandhi Road @ Kochi.

Metro at the cost of MG ?  

Recently in India, largest and the first horizontally designed mall opened in Aurangabad which was 1 million sqft in area.  Kochi MG Road stands in much higher position as a horizontal mall, only lacking in a big roof. The individual shops here have a floor area ranging from 50sqft to 5 lakh sqft.  This reminds me the road side restaurants in Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and many parts of Europe.  Wondering if the traffic to MG road is

closed and a roof is laid for 4 KM stretch and allow restaurants to open on roads will attract more tourist to this place.  This gives more opportunity  for street vendors too. 

Long long ago when Honey and milk

(not sure how sweet both were)  were flowing during the days of British Raj, when Ernakulam city was part of British Cochin, the arterial road of the city was Chitoor Road built by Kochi Rajas connection South Railway Station to Chittoor Temple in Pachalam. As the road was not connecting to the south side of the city particularly to Fort Kochi, the British Resident felt need of another major road that connects to south.

In the year 1920 Sir Robert Bristow - The Chief Engineer  

who conceived the new port of Kochi, announced his plans to create a new island from sea between Ernakulam Mainland and Fort Kochi island and transfer the existing port to the new island. He visionsed the urgent need of new road connecting mainland and new port island.

In 1923 plans for new road was finalized and works was started. The new road was seventy feet in width and hence named as Seventy Feet road and opened to public in 1925. May be would have not faced the present land accusation problems.

Since then this road played an important role in the history of modern Cochin with several landmarks located this stretch. Today it's one of the most important commercial roads of the city and one of the most congested roads in the state.

In year 1972, the road was renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Road,

in honor of Father of the Nation. Thank God politics was not as cheap as now or else the road  would have been named after any other politicians name.

Now known as MG Road or I will rather call it as the biggest Horizontal mall with a shopping area of 4 KM, MG Road is a high end commercial street. The most important PSU house located in this stretch is Cochin Shipyard, one of the largest shipyards in India, located near Harbor side. Several top companies has their offices in this stretch and most of the banks in India maintains their regional offices or main branches in this road someone in the past even suggested to name it as Bank Road as it accommodate over 100 of banks,  The stretch also houses more than a dozen premium hotels as well . Some of the leading commercial landmarks are

It's commonly heard when you need a ticket to fly run to Atlantis. Most of the airlines have their offices in Atlantis which is in south of MG road. The area is famous for several leading travel agents, holiday companies and sight-seeing tour firms. The Air India Building located in Atlantis Junction is a landmark. All major airlines to have their office here. Even good pani puri is available. 

Think of weddings, you end up in one of the textile malls in MG road, if you don't think of wedding too you end up in one to buy clothes. Almost all top Textile malls are located in this road with ample car parking attached to them, Textile mall like Seematti with over 5lak sqft of shopping area and which can

accommodate over 1000 cars per day is in the north end of MG Road. followed by Chennai Silks, Formost, Jayalakshmi,  Kalayan silks (adjacent to mg road) , Jose brothers, Vettukattil Textiles , Parthas Textiles and all the leading brands flagship outlets are located on either side of this road.

It's said, the bride's of Kerala weigh double on her wedding day as they wear the same weight of gold jewellery,  Kochi is one of the most important gold shopping centers in India accounting to about 10 % gold sales in the country Jewelries include Alapatt Heritage, Alappat Fashion jeweler, Alappat Arcade, House of Alappat, Francis Alukkas, Kalyan Jewelers, Bhima, Malabar Gold, Tanishq , Geeri pai, Thribhuvandas Bhimji Zaveri, ,Vanitha, Parakatt jewellers, Paul Alukkas, Sunny diamonds & VNM gold are few MG road glitters with this jewellers you can imagine how much gold is collectively own by MG Road.

Solution for all your requirements with in a stretch of 4 Km, almost all national banks maintains its regional or main branches in this road. Regional offices of State Bank of India, State Bank of Travancore, ICICI Bank, Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank and Punjab National Bank etc. are located here. Branches of international banks like Standard Chartered, Citi Bank, HSBC, Oman Bank etc. are also located here, countless Any Time Money (ATM) machines which spit millions of Rupee notes every day in this street.

Scary Beacon's of Ambulance is commonly heard when you are in MG Road,  When the world plans for Medical city's MG Road already accommodates a huge number of hospitals which

are specialized  in many disciplines Medical Trust, Saraf Hospital , Cochin Hospital - Pallimukku, Kottakal Ayurveda sala,  City Hospital - Padma Junction, Lakshmi Hospital - Diwans Road, Sree Sudheendra Medical Mission, General Hospital, Krishna Hospital & PNVM.

Though Mamooty and Mohanlal the super stars of Kerala drive their car's through MG Road, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce wills, Amitab bachan, Shahrukh khan and may others play their roles in MG Road.  The concept of multiplex which is fast growing around the world already exists in MG Road in the form of large individual theater complex, this include Deepa theater, Kavitha, Shenoys, Padma and to add the list 11 screen wonder @ Central Mall is about to be opened.

The geographic location of the city makes Cochin very unique to its tourists. Cochin attracts tourists and business travelers from far off lands and offers comfortable accommodation at the hotels in Cochin. MG road plays a important role as the prime location of Kochi's major hotels.  To name a few  Harbour View, Dwraka, Avenue Regent, Cylone bake house, Yuvarani Residencey, Woodlands, Woods Mannor, Hotel Grand, Abad, Hotel International.

Attractions do not end here there are more like Pai dosha with  36 verities of Dosas, dominoz

pizz, cafe coffee day, naturals ice, Photo studios, camera stores, electronic shops, entertainment electronic shops, Home appliances, furniture shops, petrol pumps, handicrafts state owned and private, branded watches and spectacles, leading advertising agency, leading financial institutions, educational institutions, famous Maharaja's College and Ground.......  the list is endless you enter MG road and search from a pin to a pistol you will own it with in a time of 4km.

Kochi a fast growing metro, though it does not have the metro status officially due to less population. The Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) had earlier submitted a proposal to form a Kochi Metropolitan Regional Development Authority for a total area of 4,574 sq.km. with a population of 46 lakh. The jurisdictional area was increased by including Vaikom, Thodupuzha, Cherthala, Chalakudy and Kodungallur from neighboring districts along with entire area of Ernakulam.

Getting to MG road has become difficult now a days due to the construction work of Metro rail towards North of Ernakulam. Authorities say the construction of Metro Rail will be over within 3-4 years time. Will Metro Rail project will complete in time ?

When thinking of Metro Rail how come Kochi gets Metro Rail when she herself has corporation status, the right name at this juncture will be corporation rail, I foresee a futuristic thinking first get Metro Rail sanctioned and with that reference  Metro status for Kochi .wha..wha..here huzoor...wha sabash bolie....

MG road being one of the top business generating streets in India, if stand still for over 3 years what will be the consequence, this may open new business areas but the existing charm of MG road will be lost. Once the business is shifted to other locations of Ernakulam then what's the use of Metro Rail running through MG road. This may be like vendors in festival ground after the festival is over and the crowd is gone. These questions may be haunting the business community of MG road but I am sure they would have not got any answers for the same.

When I discussed the same about few media people their reply was about the fruitful days after the Metro Rail start functioning. But my question remains if all the business is moved to other locations will people take the pain to come to MG road again. I have few examples earlier days Mattanchery was the trading hub, later it shifted to Broadway now Mattanchery lost its charm and business, when MG road was born Broadway lost its charm. Now that By-Pass road is focused for business, will this effect MG road. If so why spend so much money on Metro Rail which will be running through MG road ?

I am not against metro rail, like any other city Kochi too need metro rail. The question is does it require to run through the heart of Kochi which is M G road. can't they leave this 4 km stretch and take the adjacent roads for the Rail which will help MG road to sustain the business as what it is now.   The daily business volume in about 250 shops on the MG Road stretch is in the range of 1 crore to 1.5 crore. As we know MG road has already lost its charm to shopping malls and the business has shifted to Edappally and palarivattom regions.  Though Kochi Metro Rail work is expected to complete faster parking and running business will not be in the favour of the traders. Let's sit and watch .

The fact remains we should learn from Chinese how they utilize and protect Nanjing Lu in Shanghai