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Thereby hangs a TALE
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As you caterpillar your way along the jammed roads of the city, you often wonder why those huge unfinished buildings, bang in its heart, have been there for ages. VINAYAN tells you why.
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The Cochin Mission Hospital that was to be, at Elamkulam.
CITIES ARE made up of things nice and bad, of people, buildings and thoroughfares. Buildings have a destiny, all their own. Like people, some are lucky, some are not. Kochi is dotted with all sorts of buildings, but the not-so-lucky ones stand out, in miserable solitude, proclaiming their ill luck.
One of them is a `three star luxury hotel' near the South over bridge. The other, the `Cochin Mission Hospital' at Elamkulam, unfinished and thickly covered with weeds, for the last two decades.
The proposed Oceanic Hotel at Ravipuram is another landmark, an unfinished skeleton of a building, which has stood there since 1981. When you come down the South overbridge, towards the heart of the city, on the left, is a run down hotel, Raj Mahal. Ever wondered how it came to this state? M.N Ravi Varma, from the Cochi royal family, wanted to do something afterhis retirement. A post-graduate in Economics and Accounting, he bought a plot near the South over bridge and started the construction in 1990. The three star hotel, Raj Mahal, with all its pride, was opened in 1996, only to be closed down in 2000.
The proposed Oceanic Hotel at Ravipuram
The centrally air-conditioned hotel with 39 rooms had six directors. With state of the art facilities incorporated, the hotel was expected to do booming business. The hotel, which required both man power and Rs.5,000 in cash for electricity for a single day, could not survive for more than four years in its service. With the interest for credits availed from the banks mounting, it could not go on longer.
A desperate Mr. Varma blames the government liquor policy for the closure of his hotel. The hotel being close to the Valanjambalam temple,Raj Mahal was denied a bar licence. Now with a total investment and liability of nearly Rs. 6 crores, Mr. Varma is looking forward to an early disposal of his late dream.
The story is a little different with this unfinished building: The six floor half built building at Elamkulam with a sign board saying, `Cochin Mission Hospital' has never been a hospital. The building has stood at this stage of construction for 20 years, secluded, other than for a few carpenters in a furniture workshop being run there. When contacted, the owner of the building, refused to comment. With Rs. 4 crores of money invested and such a good area of land wasted in the prime locality, he was in no mood to talk.
The closed Raj Mahal hotel
Often buildings fall into disputes and end up nowhere. The `Oceanic Hotel' at Ravipuram is one such. The six storied building was half complete by 1986. Disputes between the family members halted the construction, reportedly. The banks involved took over and legal disputes also had to be surmounted before it came into the present ownership."Plans are all set for the renovation of the building and soon you can expect a new shopping complex there," says Sunny, a gold merchant in Dubai, who bought the building. "The government should appoint a local body to enquire and study about such buildings in the city," said D.Baburajan, Town Planning Officer of the Kochi Corporation. Though the buildings with above satisfactory method of construction are not of any danger to the public, they stand out like sore thumbs, marring the beauty of the city, he added.
Hundreds of such small and big buildings stand as mute witnesses to man's unfinished dream.
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