Ambattur

This place is one of 108 Shakthi Sthals in the country. The Amman temple (for the Hindu deity Durga) here is the fifty-first in the order, giving the locality the Tamil name "aimbaththu onraam oor" (ஐம்பத்து ஒன்றாம் ஊர்), meaning fifty-first place/temple village, which later transmuted as Ambattur. The goddess is worshiped in the form of Vaishnavi.

Ambattur is also called so because it was a collaboration of 50 small towns (ambathu oor in Tamil), from which the name Ambattur was derived.

Along with Avadi, Sembium, Ennore and Tiruvottriyur, Ambattur is part of the "auto belt" in the city's industrial north and west regions that developed when the automobile industry developed in Madras, in the early post-World War II years.[1] Sir Ivan Stedeford, chairman of Tube Investments, United Kingdom, was instrumental in starting the TI factory and TII complex in the country. Sir Ivan signed a joint venture agreement with A. M. Murugappa Chettiar of the Murugappa Group, which was then a small business house manufacturing sandpaper and abrasives for the war effort and also trading war surplus. It was the first joint venture agreement to be signed in South India after Independence. This resulted in the establishment of the TI Cycle factory in a mango grove in Ambattur by 1951, and manufacture of the 'Hercules India' bicycle soon began. By 1954, the word 'India' was dropped from the name when international quality standards were met.[2]

In 1954, Sir Ivan signed his second joint venture, Tube Products India, with the Murugappa family. The factory was established on what had been the British Government of Malaya's Immigration Camp. By 1956, production was started in the new factory and soon resulted in the establishment of other TI factories in the Ambattur-Avadi industrial stretch. This led to a rapid growth in population in the region and several public amenities were established in Ambattur by TI company, such as the Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar Higher Secondary School (named after the person who had initially introduced the partners to each other), a post office and a bank. When the growing population demanded a hospital, the company established one between Ambattur and Avadi in 1966 from a gift of around £5,000 from Sir Ivan. The hospital was named the Sir Ivan Stedeford Hospital in his honour.[2]

Ambattur comes under the Sriperumbudur Parliamentary constituency. It was previously under the North Chennai parliamentary constituency, and, along with Villivakkam, it was the largest assembly constituency in India. The Fame organisation sangam originated here. The delimitation process of assembly constituencies had given Ambattur a new identity of its own: Constituency No. 8, Tamil Nadu. Once a major panchayat, Ambattur was made a township in the 1960s and a selection-grade municipality from April 1975. In May 1992, it was raised to special-grade municipality.[3] It was a municipality till October 2011. It had been divided into 52 wards. Ambattur Municipality included Padi, Korattur, Mogappair, kallikuppam, Ayapakkam TNHB and the Ambattur Industrial Estate areas.

On 15 June 2011, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister of India to expand the city limits of Chennai by which the Ambattur Municipality would come under the new scheme.[4]

Since 2011, it is part of Chennai Corporation as Zone 7 with 15 wards (Ward Nos. 79 to 91, 93).[5]

According to the 2011 census, Ambattur had a population of 466,205 with a sex-ratio of 985 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929.[6] A total of 48,444 were under the age of six, constituting 24,829 males and 23,615 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 11.49% and 0.33% of the population, respectively. The average literacy of the town was 82.61%, compared with the national average of 72.99%.[6] The town had 120,248 households. There were 184,390 workers, comprising 1,252 cultivators, 1,128 main agricultural labourers, 2,467 in house hold industries, 159,242 other workers, 20,301 marginal workers, 507 marginal cultivators, 453 marginal agricultural labourers, 641 marginal workers in household industries and 18,700 other marginal workers.[7] As per the religious census of 2011, Ambattur had 86.53% Hindus, 3.68% Muslims, 8.95% Christians, 0.05% Sikhs, 0.04% Buddhists, 0.17% Jains, 0.57% following other religions and 0.01% following no religion or did not indicate any religious preference.[8]

During 2001–2011, Ambattur registered a population growth of 54%.[9]

A section of the Ambattur Lake

Ambattur has two main waterbodies, namely the Ambattur Eri and the Chithu Oragadam Lake and the bigger Puzhal eri on the outskirts. The upkeep of the Ambattur Eri is plagued by problems such as dumping of garbage,[10] water mining and construction of buildings and the Chithu Oragadam (Thangal) Eri suffers due to pollution by sewage.[11] The local body generates nearly 250 tonnes of garbage daily.[12]

Ambattur has a stormwater drain network of 177.95 km, the largest of the eight zones newly added to the Corporation of Chennai in 2011.[13]

The economy of Ambattur is mainly industrial. It was well known as an auto ancillary hub. However, in the late 2000s many IT companies have come up in Ambattur.

One Indiabulls Park, Ambattur

The Ambit IT Park with CMA CGM, iOpex Technologies and CSS Corp

Ambattur Industrial Estate has attracted a lot of IT companies due to its proximity to residential neighbourhoods and the lower rentals. The lease rentals of IT Parks in Ambattur are half of those in the city. Information Technology (IT) companies such as MilesTs, HCL Technologies, Dell and Tata Consultancy Services have their development centres here. Out of the 22 facilities that HCL Technologies has in Chennai, six are in Ambattur. There are also a few BPO centres such as Perot Systems, Telebuy, Polaris BPO, Serco, First Source & iOPEX Technologies. Prince Info Park, Kochar Technology Park, Ambit IT Park. Chennai Tech Park, a 2,400,000 sq ft (220,000 m²), state-of-the-art, futuristic IT park, on 10 acres (40,000 m²) of land is commissioned since 2009 by IndiaLand Park. Now that 10 acres commercial building is bought by Indiabulls Securities Ltd for Rs 600 crores and renamed it as One IndiaBulls Park, current occupiers of the complex include Royal Bank of Scotland, Kone, Britannia Industries, Ajuba, Covenant, Telebuy, Ibox, Bean Balls, Germany's Modisch, Yes Bank and Etisalat.[17] One IndiaBulls park is one of the major IT parks in Ambattur. As a remarkable mile stone, CMA CGM, world's 3rd largest liner started their documentation centre along with Regional eCommerce Team in AMBIT park.

However, the demand for commercial space in Ambattur is not as robust as Rajiv Gandhi Salai which is marketed extensively by the government. While IT and ITeS firms in Ambattur have brought in a new image to the industrial belt that has been known for its garment and auto-ancillary units, it has increased the real estate prices.[18]

• Cure Advanced Dental Care
• Sir Ivan Stedeford Hospital
• SS Dental Care [22]
• Teja Hospital
• Mahalakshmi Hospital
• EssVee Hospital
• Ravindran's Health Care
• B.M Ortho and Trauma Hospital
• Raghavendra Hospital
• Dr.Bhat's Hospital
• Ashwini Eye care & Arvind Opticals
• Rakki Hospital
• New Century Medical Centre, Varadharajapuram, Ambattur

The residential areas of Ambattur are mainly divided by railway line running east to west. Residential areas round the railways station and south of railway line and about are relatively older residential areas. Residential areas ending with word 'puram' can be considered as older areas of Ambattur town.

Residential areas north of the railway line include Venkatapuram, Vijayalaksmipuram, Vinayagapuram, Kallikuppam, Madhanakuppam (Lakeview Nagar), Ramnagar, Menambedu, Karukku, Prithivipakkam, Gnanamurthy Nagar, DTP Colony (Vijayalaksmipuram), Pudur, Krishnapuram, Thiruvengada Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Sathyapuram, Cholapuram, Oragadam, Venkateshwara Nagar, Banu Nagar, Lenin Nagar, Abiramipuram and Thirumalai Priya Nagar. Residential areas south of the railway line include Varadharajapuram, Ramapuram, Kamarajapuram, Teachers Colony, Mahakavi Bharathiyar Nagar (MKB Nagar), Sivanandha Nagar, Annai Sathya Nagar, ICF Colony, Old Ambattur areas (near Ambattur Telephone Exchange) such as Ambattur Village Street, Athipet, Managalapuram, Pattarivakkam and Prime residential areas like VGN Shanthi Nagar, VGN Cosmopolis, VGN Victoria Park and VGN Brent Park.

The Branch Library, as it is now called, was opened in May 1971 by the then Minister of Education and Local Administration V. R. Nedunchezhiyan. It was earlier known as Murugappa Library, as the building it is housed in belongs to the A.M.M. Charities Trust. The library is situated near Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Government Girls Higher Secondary School (Girl's High School).

Theatres include Rakki Cinemas (multiplex) and Sri Murugan multiplex near the Ambattur railway station. Kannan Theatre near Senthil Nagar was closed and converted to Dolphin Sports Academy. Parks include Pudur park (Old Pond) near menambedu, Thangal Lake Park near Anjalamaram, Krishnapuram Corporation Park (renovated in October 2009) and the Thiruvengada Nagar Corporation Park (opened on 11 October 2013), Venkatapuram Park at Kubera Vinayagar Temple Ground (opened in 2014), Greater Chennai Corporation Park - VGN Shanthi Nagar, Ambattur. There are many parks in Ambattur which people can use for recreational activities.

Quite a variety of birds reside and frequent the places in and around Ambattur. Woodland birds, water birds and many more visit here.[25] They are:

• Shikra (Accipiter badius)
• Blue rock pigeon (Columbia livia)
• Spotted dove (Spilopelia chinensis)
• Rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula cyanocephala)
• Pied crested cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus)
• Brainfever bird (Hierococcyx varius)
• Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopacea)
• Crow pheasant (Centropus sinensis)
• Barn owl (Tyto alba)
• Spotted owlet (Athene brama)
• House swift (Apus affinis)
• Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica)
• White-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)
• Small blue kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
• White-breasted kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)
• Lesser pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)
• Hoopoe (Upupa epops)
• Coppersmith (Megalaima haemacephala)
• Lesser goldenbacked woodpecker (Dinopium benghalense)
• Large pied wagtail (Motacilla maderaspatensis)
• Red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer)
• White-browed bulbul (Pycnonotus luteolus)
• Common iora (Aegithina tiphia)
• Oriental magpie robin (Copsychus saularis)
• Yellow-billed babbler (Turdoides affinis)
• Common tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius)
• Asian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradise)
• Purple-rumped sunbird (Nectarinia zeylonica)
• Purple sunbird (Nectarinia asiatica)
• Common myna (Acridotheres tristis)
• Eurasian golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus)
• Black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus)
• Indian treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda)
• House crow (Corvus splendens)
• Jungle crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)
• Indian pond heron (Ardeola greyii)

[Note: This list is not complete]

SOUTH INDIAN POST leading bilingual (English and Tamil) newspaper, Town News, Seithi Mazhai, My Vyapar is the leading bilingual (English and Tamil) newspaper. The Neighbour City and Kutty News are the newspapers in Tamil. Ambattur Talk is in English.

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