IT park is spread over a thousand acres and is home to many technology giants
Siruseri, which witnessed IT boom in the past decade, is now housing several IT parks within its limits. Above, a view of the Siruseri SEZ IT park. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: Located 30 km away from the heart of the city, Siruseri, one of the latest boomtowns, saw little development until the turn of the last decade. Today, the IT park is spread over a thousand acres and is home to many technology giants like TCS, Cognizant, Syntel, iGate Patni and Hexaware technologies.
The $250 million TCS building in the park occupies a unique place thanks to its impressive wing-like structure. In many ways, the development of Old Mahabalipuram Road, now known as Rajiv Gandhi Salai, is closely linked to the emergence of Siruseri on the IT map.
By 2006, the first phase of the IT corridor from Madhya Kailash signal to Siruseri was operationalized, thereby reducing the usual travel time by more than half. Coconut vendor Selvaraj of Egattur recalled the time when the OMR road was so narrow that, “if two vehicles came in opposite directions, they could have passed through only with one set of the wheels off the road.”
Even as technological companies, educational institutes and luxury hotels started checking in, land prices shot up astronomically. “Back in the 1990s, one cent of land cost Rs 5,000, but today the asking rate would hover around the range of Rs 30 lakh, and even then there would be a queue of buyers,” said S. M. Ekambaram, chairman of Siruseri town panchayat.
As for prosperity, he continues, “Most land owners sold their lands and have settled down peacefully. Even middlemen have made good use of their brokerage commissions.”
The IT park, locals claim, has truly done wonders for them, but they do make it a point to complain about the loss of vast agricultural fields.
( Source : dc )
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