Skywards: Trivandrum Goes Vertical
Have you ever tried to imagine how our city will look like, a quarter of a century from now?
Don’t worry, I’m not talking about Global Warming and sea level change, so don’t close this browser window. Visualize yourself driving through the NH Bypass on a nice afternoon in 2035 Christmas week, crossing the Akkulam lake. Are you seeing what I’m seeing?
I’m talking about the prodigious highrise boom witnessed in Trivandrum now-a-days… 
Saraswathi Nilayam, when topped out in the virgin 80s must’ve definitely created a huge interest. Though a 10 storied apartment complex is too humble to be classified a ‘highrise’, (Emporis laysout a figure of 12 floors/35m for a highrise) it must surely have made some old jaws drop. So did the Spencer Building on MG road, even now a class apart when it comes to design. In fact Samarias Centerin PMG was among the first true highrises, crossing that 35m mark. It had a congruous neighbour in Co Bank Towers, a true highrise with a trendy architecture and novel features like the escalator. Hotel Fort Manor in East Fort, the SCTIMST(Sree Chitra Hospital) and co which were early lamp-bearers of the highrise culture.
Surely we all can recognize these august landmarks of erstwhile Trivandrum.
The apartment culture, which evaded the city and suburbs in recent times, has pushed the limits to a different level. Trivandrum’s peculiar geography and proximity of the International Airport meant that highrise construction within the core city areas had severe height restrictions. As you may have observed, the array of commercial structures opposite Secretariat have topped out at exactly the same height. The Kowdiar-Vazhuthacaud belt did create a slew of tall residential buildings, with SI’s Windbrook Place (17 floors) holding the ‘gigantism’ record for a while.
With the apartments dotting the city like Pine trees in a conifer forest, Trivandrum started checking the options to crack its population density problem. With the urban land costing a premium, 20+ storied structures, well over 60m height became a norm especially along the IT Corridor.
The only hinderance to the city ushering in true skyscrapers towering over 100m, was the proximity to the Airport but things have changed at the stroke of a pen. The AAI (Airport Authority of India) waived the limitations vis a vis heights a few months back, and it means that structures can zoom upto 3 times the heights permitted earlier!
In plain words, close to/over 50 floors is now possible even along the Akkulam shores! Difficult to believe? We already have 36 floor multiple towers under construction in Akkulam. And still taller ones are on the drawing board, so let’s keep our fingers and toes crossed!
What we now need is our authorities rising upto the challenge and upgrade the infrastructure crucial to promote this model of highrise development. And going skywards is definitely going to be the one option for the future, if we are looking at the ‘green’ aspect of it 
Image Courtesy: Flickr
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Author: scorpiogenius (9 Articles)
scorpio, but far from a genius. XY chromosomal, travel addict, media-holic, big-city maniac, fun loving and absent minded. That's me in a nutshell! :)
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Good one, Scorpio!
has the work on 36 floor heera project commenced???
Yes, it’s started. Please check their website.
Yes. Good research!!
I would prefer a horizontally bigger and ‘planned’ city with a good network of broad roads to a vertical one in lesser area. High rises would mean more number of people and vehicles in whatever small roads we have. Chennai (horizontal) Vs Mumbai (vertical) is an interesting comparison, with Chennai being a much lesser congested city
chennai has horizontal development because Barren land is available there. where as in mumbai or in our own trivandrum we don’t have any land left.
I prefer a vertical city with better infrastructure.
A horizontal one will require eat more energy and spits more pollution. Ofcourse a vertical city will need better roads, better sewage and water system. But it will take up only a very little land space, and in turn save some forest/agricultural land.
It is always better to focus on vertical development on a city like trivandrum. Because you can save land and thus can efficiently utilize our land. For example. the heera 4 pillars on Killipalam consists of 545 apartments. And you can see all of them concentrated on a smaller area. Imagine all these 545 families moving out to independent villas….It leads to a huge loss of green spaces and poor utilization of land.
So vertical development should be given more promotion. I expect home grown builders to build taller buildings.I expect at least 10 50plus storied buildings within 5 years.
I’m glad that that stupid kochi cant grow taller like Trivandrum. As you all know it was actually a swamp reclaimed into a city. So taller buildings means soil liquification will take place faster so there are more chances for buildings to get sunk in the soil. Also according to seismographic studies the maximum intensity of earthquake that could happen in kochi is 6.3 while in Trivandrum is 3.4 . So our city is more safer for tall buildings.
Could you give some more info on that Seismic data? All Kerala districts fall under the Seismic Zone III, and its interesting to know more about this info you’ve posted. Any pan-India information? Please give the source if possible. Thanks
Yes. I would like to see some credible source on that information. And please avoid swearing words in comments.
It is the money from this stupid Kochi which feeds all those fat corrupts govt officials which forms the main income group of your city
You are welcome to check our state govt’s revenue report… That said I agree Kochi does not have planned development… Kochi has grown just because of private investment and that is it… Govt other than collecting money from this growth has not been keen to spend any money or thought on how to plan and develop this city which could have become a show case for our state… Now due to the disconnect between Govt and people, our state does not have a major city like Bangalore or Chennai which can be shown to other states … Govt invests in one place and people invests in other places … Technopark was the first IT park in India but failed before other IT parks which came later because even people from Kerala was not connected properly with Technopark… Similary the first international airport of our state …
At present kochi is more taller than tvm..kochi is commercial capital of kerala,which brings money to kerala..
@ AB@AB Group – “I’m glad that that stupid kochi cant grow taller like Trivandrum”.
Get your facts straight before making dumb comments. Kochi has far more taller high rises than Trivandrum. The current tallest one is Choice Residential Towers (40+). And it was not a swamp, but Vembanad lake which was reclaimed to build Marine Drive. And there is no dearth of high rises on Marine Drive.
Yes Kochi was a small town back in the days, but the rate @ which it has grown over the last couple of decades is something Trivandrum can never match.
@Kochi yes we all know how much Kochi developed in a short span of time and belive me nobody interested that kinda change here.Trivandrum compared to Kochi is much more better organized and systematic.So what the kind of planned development happening here is what we r proud of.Jst take the case of Delhi and Mumbai.kochi is morelike mumbai with development going with no change in basic facilities.Well fact is not always dump.trivandrum will be the place where u can say BEAUTY meets QUALITY
Hi all,
The mention of Trivandrum 2035 made me drop into this blog.I’m an architect from Trivandrum now practising in Bangalore.
Recently I had taken part in an international design competition for a city of the future (www.advancedarchitecturecontest.org)by the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain(www.iaac.net).My entry titled “A vision for Trivandrum 2035 AD” was one among the finalist projects selected to be published in their competition based book.
It is a futuristic design for Trivandrum integrating some of the latest technological innovations to produce a sustainable habitat of the future. I’d like to share it with you all. The competition entry panels are posted in my website http://www.ecoconcord.com. Here’s link to that page (http://www.ecoconcord.com/?page_id=147)
Thanks and regards,
Jos Conil
How could you forget the nearly 40-year old Kulathinkal Pothen building (I remember it used to have about 10 storeys) that used to be between Secretariat and GPO? It was demolished last year as part of the widening of MG Road. It was the first high-rise in the city and was the first ever to have elevators. The owner Mr Pothen was the father of Harry Pothen (movie producer) and Pratap Pothen (actor).
With this web page publish you might have guide me to uncover the facts which I need to get additional information. Thank you for that!
Any 50 storeyed buildings for TVM yet ?
Can some one reply ?
50!! Tvm has not seen even 25 until now. Though few are in the early stage of construction.
now under construction
1.HEERA dreams AT AKULAM -36 FLOORS(2towers
2.i-PARK NIKUNJAM AT KAZHAKUTAM-36 FLOORS
3.ARTECHMEENAKSHI @VAZHUTHACAUD-25 FLOORS
4. 23 STORIED Big-I near techno park & hordes of 20+ storied buildings.
few of the completed high rises
1.SFS CHERRY,SILVER,OLIVE,PEACH&IVORY 22floors
2.skyline domain 22 floors
3.heera info city 18 floors
4. heera swiss town 18 floors
5. oceanus blue mount 19 floors
6. SFS skyscapes- 18 floors
7.Heera high life – 19 floors
8. sfs cybergold 22 floors
9. sfs waterscapes 18 floors
10.artech lake view 20 floors
the total no. of high rises(+12 floor)in Trivandrum is nearly 250 nos.
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Trivandrum is going to have highrises but they are still a long way behind Kochi . This situation has come because Trivandrum was a little stagnant for a few years and Kochi has overtaken Trivandrum and since that, Kochi has been flying with development. Kochi has already a 40,35 & a 28 floored buildings and many of the buildings under construction are all above 30 floors!. many are even 40!. Here, Tvm has only 10 to 20 floored buildings which is a little disappointing. Kochi has a beehive of malls already ,and about 12 malls are under construction!. I may be proven wrong, but I have not heard any malls even under cnstruction in TVM . If Tvm had developed earlier, it would have been at least equal to Kochi which is now one of the best in India!. I was living in TVM for about 2 years and to be honest, I didn’t see too many tall buildings at all.
plzz dont compare trivandrum with kochi .. itz a shame for a cosmopolitan fast grwoing city like kochi . Are you guys comparing Kochi and trivandrum just because both are in kerala..??? TVM can be compared with calicut , mangalore , Trissur , Madurai etc not even with coimbatore.. ochi is tooo high for trivandrum to catch .. dont dream of catching moon my dear child.. compare with cities within your limit. lol
KANZZ you r right . kochi is the city with highest rating ie b1 grade in kerala. while tvm is much behind it. kochi has the best transporting facilities with 3 national highways,keralas bussiest airport, major shipport with indias 1st and only international container terminal etc..
In case of shoping malls also kochi is best with oberonmall and lulumall under construction, which will be one of the largest malls of india…
Not at all Oberon and Lulu Sam number of malls r there one coming up near kavitha theatre in MG Road is 4 times bigger than oberon ..also a multiplex with 9 screens will be there , plus existing Gold souk , Nuclear mall etc etc .not at all in Trivandrum no where in kerala we”l be able to see real malls other than Kochi .Some shopping complexes like our old penta menaka and GCDA complex is coming up in Trivandrum and other places in the name of malls!!! Kochi Rocks…