Gangubai’s house now Gangotri museum

Gangubai’s house now Gangotri museum

Manu Aiyappa | TNN

Gangubai Hangal

Dharwad: Tuesday will go down as a Red Letter Day in the annals of Indian classical music, when chief minister B S Yeddyurappa dedicates ‘Gangotri’ —- the birthplace-turned-museum of renowned Hindustani classical vocalist Gangubai Hangal, to the nation. According to the organizers, it is the first of its kind in the country being dedicated to a “living legend”.
   The museum (birthplace) of Gangubai Hangal is located in Shukravarpet of Dharwad. For years, whenever she visited Dharwad, Gangubai made it a point to visit Shukravarpet, just to have a glimpse of the house where she was born and brought up.
   Moved by her sentiments, the state government decided to acquire the property, which Gangubai had sold to one Krishnaji Venkatacharya Kittur in 1957. Krishnaji had later sold it to Dasoi Kulkarni in 1963.
   Dasoi Kulkarni, who had a son and four daughters, died in 1989.
   The district administration took up the issue with the legal heirs of the property to acquire the house and they consented to sell it to the government for Rs 10 lakh.
   Another Rs 15 lakh was needed, as per an estimate for renovating the old house which was almost in ruins.
   Yeddyurappa, when deputy CM in the erstwhile coalition government led by Kumaraswamy, sanctioned Rs 25 lakh to acquire the house when the proposal was put before him.
   Later, the district authorities with technical assistance from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) took up renovation and converted it into a heritage building.
   Experts from R V College of Engineering, Bangalore, were roped in for technical inputs on the renovation, based on which Nirmiti Kendra, Dharwad, began the work. “We made every effort to retain the original look of the house, although a part of it had collapsed. Even the wooden pillars have been retained and some weak ones were replaced with the same wood,” said Kendra members.
   The authorities now plan to start a music school as per the wishes of the music legend. She had also suggested that one of the rooms in her ancestral house be dedicated exclusively to the teaching of music.
   The main hall and two rooms have rare photographs and books related to music and musicians, promising to be a part of the itinerary of tourists to Dharwad.

Will Nano drive to Dharwad?

Will Nano drive to Dharwad?

Published on Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 17:41 , Source : CNBC-TV18

As the Tata's get a green signal from the Karnataka Chief Minister Y S Yediyurappa to set up the Nano plant in Dharwad, the question arises how feasible is it for the Tata's to actually make the shift?

There is a Telcon plant in Dharwad owned by the Tatas and soon if things go the Karnataka government's way then the Nano could be its new neighbour. Chief Minister Yediyurappa has sent Tata Motors an open invitation to set up a 1000 acre plant

BS Yediyurappa, Chief Minister, Karnataka said, "I met Tata Motor's executives and their Dhadwad unit will be operational within a month. I offered them to shift to Dharwad if they want to from WestBengal and I offered them all assistance. They are very receptive. Now the decision is left to them."

With CM Yediyurappa going all out to make sure that the Tata's get their plant here in Dharwad it's a win win situation for both. The Tata's get a plant for the Nano and for Yediyurappa they get investment in Northern Karnataka.

But what makes the Dharwad plant an attractive option for Tatas? Dharwad is close to Pune, the manufacturing headquarter of Tata's. The presence of Tata's exisiting plant for its marco polo bus unit is another plus point. Vendor parks for Tata's commercial vehicles have set up base there plus vendors of Toyota in Bangalore and Tamil Nadu are close by. Also, South India constitutes almost 30% of the passenger car market.

But, there is flip side to this story. The Tata's will have to start from scratch in Dharwad as most of the technology used in the Marcopolo plant cannot be used to manufacture the Nano. Regular power supply in Northern Karnataka is a problem. Finally, the additional investments in Dharwad may push the price beyond Rs 1 lakh.

The final answer on whether or not the Nano will have a made in Karnataka tag will be known in the next two months.

Confusion over Karnataka’s offer

Confusion over Karnataka’s offer

Special Correspondent - The Hindu

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Company must use land immediately: Minister

1,000 acres needed in a contiguous

parcel, says Ravi Kant

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Dharwad: There is some confusion about whether the Karnataka government has offered a fresh allocation of 1,000 acres for locating its Nano small car project in Dharwad. This is significant because Tata Motors already has more than 660 acres of unutilised land in the Belur-Dharwad area near Dharwad town.

Minister for Industries and Commerce Murugesh Nirani told The Hindu that the “offer is at an initial stage.”

“The government would allot whatever land the Tatas required for the project if the company used it properly.” He clarified that “the company would have to use the land immediately without keeping it idle.”

Mr. Nirani said: “The company has not yet made up its mind and it has to convince us about the quantum of land it actually needs.” He said the land already allotted to Tata Motors was “not excess land.” “They need it for their future expansion,” he explained.

Familiar terrain

For Tata Motors Dharwad is not unfamiliar terrain. Tata Motors, through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, already possesses considerable real estate in and near the town. In 1996 Telco (as Tata Motors was known then) was allotted 647 acres of land in the Belur Industrial Area near Dharwad.

Of this, 119 acres was transferred to Telco Construction Equipment Company (Telcon), which manufactures earth-moving equipment. Telcon is a joint venture between Tata Motors and Hitachi Construction Equipment Company, in which Tata Motors holds a 60 per cent stake.

After Tata Motors entered into a joint venture with the Brazilian bus maker, Marcopolo, in 2006, it transferred another 123.45 acres to the joint venture company. This bus-building facility is set to go on stream next month. Tata Motors also transferred 18 acres to TML Distribution Company Ltd. (TMDCL), a fully owned subsidiary.

This means that in the Belur Industrial area Tata Motors has utilised only 283.45 acres, leaving 353.55 acres unutilised.

In addition, it was allotted 300 acres of land in the Dharwad Growth Centre Industrial Area last year.

Sources in the Industries Department told The Hindu that the company has 663.55 acres of surplus land in the area.

The point is whether the 1,000 acre offer reportedly mentioned by Tata Motors Chairman Ravi Kant in Bangalore on Thursday includes this “surplus.”

Rural Development Minister Shobha Karandlaje had, in late August said the State government was willing to allot 50 acres to Tata Motors, which, in addition to the 900 acres it already possesses, would be enough for the Nano project.

This would suggest that there is a wide variation between what the State government had in mind when it made its offer to the Tatas and what the Tatas expected.

Mr. Ravi Kant had pointed out that the company requires 1,000 acres in a contiguous parcel for the Nano project, so that it can accommodate its vendor units within the same complex. After the recent agitation in Singur, the company had rejected the West Bengal government’s offer of additional land for what it would surrender to farmers from within its allotted portion. The company had said it would require the land to be contiguous.

How will the farmers react?

How will the farmers react?

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Could there be a Singur-like problem between the Karnataka government and Dharwad farmers on the purchase of 1,000 acres for the Tatas? A senior government official said preliminary reports on land acquisition in the area have shown that farmers will not object to selling their land.
   “The feedback is that people in Dharwad are willing to sell their land in the hope of getting better jobs from a project like a car manufacturing facility,” the official said.
   “But it will be an uphill task for the government to give land around Bangalore as the IT city is already very populated,” he said. “North Karnataka has been starved of investment for a long time and any investment will be welcomed by the people,” he explained.
   S Viswanathan, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Karnataka, welcomed the move to give land in Dharwad and said the organization has always told the government to make investments equally in all districts.
   He too felt Dharwad will not face the kind of problem Singur in West Bengal has faced. “It is true that land acquisition is difficult, but it is not an impossible task,” he said.
   Dharwad is also seen as a good fit for Tata Motors. The company is familiar with the area and the people as it has a commercial vehicle manufacturing facility there. It is also in the process of setting up a bus manufacturing unit soon.
   Dharwad is also close to Pune — a city known as the base of Tata Motors.