‘It is better to be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion’ is a maxim that may go well with Ambattur.
It was once the engine room of the city that attracted industrialists from all over the state to converge on Madras in the ’50s.
While the factories of TI Group of the Chettiars were early entrants, businessmen came from Kallidaikurichi and Tirunelveli to set up their plants at the start of the big industrial push in the country.
Dunlop, representing old colonial links, was here all along while TVS came to town with four big projects in the early ’60s.
The locality was also famous for its sprawling water bodies and the feeling of space with industries like auto ancilliaries, foundries and heavy manufacturing well spread out.
The IT revolution came much later as some of the older industries and their supporting units collapsed. Land was the prime attraction while nearness to residential areas like Anna Nagar made Ambattur the hub of factories and office space.
So quickly did Ambattur and surrounding areas develop that the taint of ‘industrial area’ was disappearing and the area became posh with nameplates of international IT companies coming up. With the expansion came the merger with the Chennai Corporation in 2011.
Sadly, the locality not only lost its identity as one of the largest municipalities in the state enjoying special municipal grade status with an annual revenue of Rs 450 crore, but also its emergence as a gateway to Chennai on the western side.
Ambattur was a popular suburb with two lakes and the Puzhal reservoir located close to Chennai.
The developments on the real estate front were consequently huge with colonies sprouting all around and along the trunk road to Kolkata.
But development in terms of roads, drainage, waste management and other public amenities just did not keep pace. Residents could blame their mounting civic problems on an ever expanding Chennai.
Ambattur was better placed in terms of revenue earnings when it was a special grade municipality surpassing its rivals Avadi and Tambaram.
It earned more than Rs 200 crore through property tax and registrations, but after the recent merger with the Chennai corporation, the municipality is now just another zone under the ambit of historical Chennai corporation and it is choking with garbage and pollution.
Its waste management was never the best but what was bad then became worse and zero waste management is a concept unheard of in the locality.
According to the city corporation budget for 2012-13, the original budget estimate for Ambattur zone was around Rs 113 crore and as per the revised budget estimate at the end of fiscal it was just Rs 73 crore, which means expense and earnings have witnessed a drastic decline.
And for the year 2013-14 the budget estimate is around '95 crore and projects worth several crores are pending in the locality. The revised budget estimate on civic expenditure could reduce further this year too owing to politics.
The Ambattur zonal chairman Joseph Samuel represents DMK and the AIADMK-led Corporation Council is not exactly friendly to the area.
The chairman is not allowed to perform and he is unwilling to step aside. Bringing some respite from party politics is the Deputy Mayor of Chennai, P. Benjamin, who is from the area. The lone Congress Councillor in the city Corporation, ThangathÂamizh Selvan, is also from Ambattur and his is an isolated voice seeking better amenities.
Corporation sources also confirmed that the regular monthly zonal meetings held to review the civic issues are often not conducted in Ambattur due to the political feud among the Councillors of Ambattur zone.
After picking up so nicely as an IT hub on shedding its heavy industry image, Ambattur suffers from civic neglect.
Its bustling people who brave everything to come and work and live here are the real heroes, but they suffer the lack of amenities in silence.
