 | |
| Length | 2.0 km (1.2 mi) |
|---|---|
| Location | Kochi, Kerala, India |
| From | Basin Road |
| To | Chamber Road |
Broadway Ernakulam is a shopping street situated at Kochi in Kerala state, India. It is one of the oldest shopping areas in the city. Compared to the other shopping spots in the city, the prices here are lower and really affordable.
Broadway was the only shopping street in Ernakulam during early 20th century. Initially the shopping street was located at Mattancherry. When the British took over Cochin from the Dutch, the market moved out of Mattancherry to Kochi, which had everything from a safety pin to clothes and hardware on offer. Broadway had set of coveted tailors right from the start of 20th century. Prominent among those were J. Newfield and Company, which made the best three-piece suits at the time, Koya Hassan and the Bharatha Tailoring Company, which was famous for the uniforms it made for the State chauffeurs. The White Hall Silk Palace, set up in the 1920s by a Muslim trader from Palakkad, was a textile hotspot. Valavi and Company is a shop which started in 1899 on broadway street. They did business in paper, tyres and liquor imported from Europe. [1]
The road leading to broadway was one of the first macadam roads in Ernakulam and this is being quoted as the reason why it got its name 'Broadway'.
Broadway Shopping street covers an area of two kilometer radius road which is sandwiched between Marine Drive, Kochi and MG Road. The area is characterized by narrow roads, quite ironically given its name. The market canal passes through Broadway and Market Road. The shopping street is a car-free pedestrian zone. Broadway adjoins Ernakulam Market where there are many wholesale shops as well.
At Broadway, one can find almost everything - ranging from old copper pots (ready to smelt) to latest fashion in clothing and jewellery, books, perfumes, spices. [2] One can even find one of the best furniture shops in town run by a Cochin Jew. Broadway has many roadside shops selling electronic goods, leather items, stationery, watches, jewelry and umbrellas. The Spice market of Kochi at Broadway street is a wholesale market where one can buy good quality spices and condiments. [3]
There are around 1,000 shops functioning in the two-km radius of Broadway. It is estimated that the market sees a footfall of minimum 5,000 people on holidays but the numbers would touch 20,000 on working days. [4] In 2016, sales at the Broadway market averaged 5 crore per month as per Broadway Shop Owners Association. [5]
The peak shopping season at Broadway Kochi is during festivals of Vishu, Onam and Christmas.
In 2009, Centre for Heritage Environment and Development and the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project, had submitted a Rs. 30-crore-project for the conservation efforts of the Broadway. [6] Though the project was submitted in the first phase of JNNURM, it failed to take off due to cost escalation and flaws in the DPR. In 2013, a revised detailed project report (DPR) was submitted for funding under the JNNURM transition funding period. The estimated cost for the project was Rs. 25 cr [7]
Kochi, also known by its former name Cochin, is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. The city is also commonly referred to as Ernakulam. As of 2011, the Kochi Municipal Corporation had a population of 677,381 over an area of 94.88 km2, and the larger Kochi urban agglomeration had over 2.1 million inhabitants within an area of 440 km2, making it the largest and the most populous metropolitan area in Kerala. Kochi city is also part of the Greater Cochin development region and is classified as a Tier-II city by the Government of India. The civic body that governs the city is the Kochi Municipal Corporation, which was constituted in the year 1967, and the statutory bodies that oversee its development are the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and the Goshree Islands Development Authority (GIDA).
Ernakulam is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, and takes its name from the eponymous city division in Kochi. It is situated in the central part of the state, spans an area of about 2,924 square kilometres (1,129 sq mi), and is home to over 9% of Kerala's population. Its headquarters are located at Kakkanad. The district includes Kochi, also known as the commercial capital of Kerala, which is famous for its ancient churches, Hindu temples, synagogues and mosques.
The Paradesi Synagogue aka Cochin Jewish Synagogue or the Mattancherry Synagogue is a synagogue located in Mattancherry Jew Town, a suburb of the city of Kochi, Kerala, in India. It was built in 1568 A.D. by Samuel Castiel, David Belila, and Joseph Levi for the flourishing Paradesi Jewish community in Kochi. Cochin Jews were composed mainly of the much older Malabari Jews and the newly arrived Sephardic refugees from the Portuguese religious persecution of Jews in Spain and Portugal. It is the oldest active synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations. Paradesi is a word used in several Indian languages, and the literal meaning of the term is "foreigners", applied to the synagogue because it was built by Sephardic or Portuguese-speaking Jews, some of them from families exiled in Aleppo, Safed and other West Asian localities.
Willingdon Island is the largest artificial island in India, which forms part of the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala. Much of the present Willingdon Island was claimed from the Vembanadu Lake, filling in dredged soil around a previously existing, but tiny, natural island. Willingdon Island is significant as the home for the Port of Kochi as well as the Kochi Naval Base, the Southern Naval Command of the Indian Navy, Plant Quarantine station, Custom House Cochin and Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, a constituent unit of Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
Fort Kochi, also known by its former name Fort Cochin is a neighbourhood of Cochin (Kochi) city in Kerala, India. Fort Kochi takes its name from the Fort Manuel of Cochin, the first European fort on Indian soil, controlled by the Portuguese East Indies. This is part of a handful of water-bound islands and islets toward the south-west of the mainland Kochi, and collectively known as Old Cochin or West Cochin. Adjacent to this is the locality of Mattancherry. In 1967, these three municipalities along with a few adjoining areas, were amalgamated to form the Kochi Municipal Corporation.
Mattancherry, is a historic ward of Kochi, Kerala. It is about 9 km south-west from the city centre. Mattanchery is home to many sites of historical and cultural significance, including the Paradesi Synagogue- which was the centre of life in the Jewish Quarter. In addition to the Cochin Jews and Paradesi Jews, Mattanchery is also home to Konkanis and Gujaratis, with the Gujarati street in Mattancherry being a cultural icon for Keralite Gujaratis.
The Mattancherry Palace is a palace popularly known as the Dutch Palace, in Mattancherry, Kochi, in the Indian state of Kerala which features Kerala murals depicting portraits and exhibits of the Rajas of Kochi. The palace was included in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Despite the name Dutch Palace, the palace was built by the Portuguese Empire as a gift to the Kingdom of Cochin.
Ernakulam is the central business district of the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. It is the namesake of Ernakulam district. The eastern part of Kochi city is mainly known as Ernakulam, while the western part of it after the Venduruthy Bridge is called as Western Kochi. Many major establishments, including the Kerala High Court, the office of the Kochi Municipal Corporation and the Cochin Shipyard are situated in Ernakulam. It is also the most urbanized area in the city of Kochi.
Cochin Port or Kochi Port is a major port on the Arabian Sea – Laccadive Sea – Indian Ocean sea-route in the city of Kochi in Ernakulam district in the state of Kerala and is one of the largest ports in India. It is also the first transshipment port in India. The port lies on two islands in the Vembanadu Lake Willingdon Island and Vallarpadam, towards the Fort Kochi river mouth opening onto the Laccadive Sea. The International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), part of the Cochin Port, is the largest container transshipment facility in India.
Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) is the statutory body overseeing the development of the city of Kochi in the state of Kerala, India. Headquartered at Kadavanthra, GCDA oversees the development of the major part of Greater Cochin area which consists of the Kochi Municipal Corporation, surrounding municipalities and 21 intervening panchayats covering an area of 632 km2.
Infopark, Kochi is an information technology park situated in the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. Established in 2004 by the Government of Kerala, the park is spread over 260 acres (105.2 ha) of campus across two phases, housing 546 companies which employs about 63,600 professionals as of 2022.
The Kochi Municipal Corporation is the municipal corporation that manages the Indian city of Kochi in the state of Kerala. The Corporation manages 94.88 km2 of Kochi city and has a population of 677,381 within that area. It is the most densely populated city corporation in the state. Kochi Municipal Corporation has been formed with functions to improve the infrastructure of town.
Ernakulam Town (station code: ERN) is an NSG–3 category Indian railway station in Thiruvananthapuram railway division of Southern Railway zone. It is a railway station in the city of Kochi, Kerala. It is the second major railway station in Kochi after Ernakulam Junction. It is located in the northern part of the city and handles around 90 trains daily. With an annual passenger footfall of 1.02 crore, Ernakulam Town railway station serves as a main stop in Ernakulam for the trains that travels through the Kottayam line.
The economy of Kochi was worth 49453.29 crores in 2012 - 2013 financial year with a growth of almost 7.5% per annum.
Kochi is a major port city in the Indian state of Kerala. The city is widely known as the commercial or economic capital of the state of Kerala.
The Kochi Metro is a rapid transit system serving the city of Kochi and the wider Kochi Metropolitan Region in Kerala, India. It was opened to the public within four years of starting construction, making it one of the fastest completed metro projects in India. The Kochi metro project is the first metro system in the country which connects rail, road and water transport facilities. It is also the first metro rail system in India to be operated using the Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling system, which requires minimum human intervention. The Kochi Water Metro is integrated with the Kochi Metro, which also serves as a feeder service to the suburbs along the rivers where transport accessibility is limited.
The Ernakulam–Kottayam–Kayamkulam line is a railway line which runs through the districts of Ernakulam, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha in Kerala state of India. This railway line starts as a branch line from Ernakulam Town railway station towards Kottayam and joins with the Ernakulam–Kayamkulam coastal line route via Alappuzha at Kayamkulam Junction. This line comes under the Thiruvananthapuram railway division of Southern Railway Zone of Indian Railways. The line has a total distance of 118 km (73 mi). The Ernakulam Town/Ernakulam Junction - Kottayam section opened in 1956-57 and Kottayam - Kollam section in 1957.
Kerala Rail Development Corporation d/b/a Kerala-Rail is a public sector joint venture company under the ownership of the Government of Kerala for the railway infrastructure development in Kerala. The company was incorporated on 3 January 2017.
The Kadavumbhagham Ernakulam Synagogue in Kerala, India, is the restored oldest synagogue of the Malabar Jews with a Sefer Torah scroll and offering occasional services. It was established in 1200 CE and restored several times through the centuries on the same site. It is modeled on the earliest synagogue of the Malabar Jews at Muziris, which dated from the time of ancient sea trade between the Mediterranean and Kerala.