CITY PROFILE: Coimbatore

Long Way To Go

Coimbatore,
also known as Kovai, is the second largest city and major commercial center in
the state of Tamil Nadu. The city is known for textiles and called as 'Manchester
of south India'. Coimbatore also has a wide industrial base manufacturing
electric motors, pumps, automobile spares, iron, steel and aluminum castings,
which form major exports from the city. In fact, it has a unique history of
being the self-developed city where government participation, both at state and
central level, in infrastructure and other investments is less.

In the IT scenario, although Chennai is the hotbed of activity in Tamil Nadu,
Coimbatore emerges as the second key city for IT investments. Armed with
cost-effective telecom connectivity and a large storehouse of qualified software
engineers, Coimbatore is more than equipped to meet IT and IT-enabled Service
requirements. Coimbatore has the capacity to provide employment to 15,000
professionals and generate revenues of over $ 100 million by 2008.

ELCOT is also setting up a state-of-the-art IT Park in Coimbatore.

The city has over 450 resellers operating in the market and they cater to the
wide corporate, small and medium enterprises, besides promising home and
educational segments. The industry is registering 35% growth year-on-year.
However, Coimbatore does not have any big names in the system integration
business and most of the orders are serviced from Chennai.

The
Coimbatore belt includes places such as Erode, Salem, Tirupur and Namakkal.
While Erode is famous for textile and dying business, Salem is known for steel
and sago products. Tirupur is again a major textile hub exporting to across the
world and Namakkal is leading in poultry business and body building works for
heavy vehicles. Coimbatore, along with its nearby towns, account for a major
revenue contribution to the State

and according to an industry report, Coimbatore belt is the fastest growing
market in Tamil Nadu.

Shanti Gears, Pricol, LMW, Texmo, Suguna Motors, ELGI, Bannari Amman Sugars,
Sakthi Sugars and Premier are to mention a few leading names in the market.
Coimbatore also produces agricultural products, which are mainly consumed by
Kerala markets. The city is known for its knowledge base having more than 100
colleges for engineering, arts and science graduation. It has several leading
institutes in the state.

S GOPIKRISHNA